The sole flexes upward in pre-determined spots, by upward-pointing, "V"-shaped, cuts in the sole. This design prevents a downward flex of the sole and foot. Your foot flexes, bends, downward, as well as upward, for a reason. Thus, these shoes hurt my feet. A good sole should flex both upward and downward along the entire length of the sole. Pre-determined flex points prevent the foot from bending where it wants to bend / flex, and force the foot to bend, unnaturally, where it does not want to naturally bend / flex. Two, rubber lugs on the sole, at the front of the heel, are significantly longer, a 1/4-inch longer, than all the other lugs on the sole of the shoe. Thus, these two, lugs bear all your weight, and you wobble, or see-saw on these two, lugs. Lugs on the sole of a shoe create pressure points on the lugs. Pressure is halved on the foot where there are no lugs underneath, but tripled upon the area of the foot resting on the lug. A good shoe should not have any lugs, but rather a flat sole, with minor traction. A good sole should be flat to the back of the heel, without any angles cut into the back of the heel. The top of the back ankle is an upward pointing "V" rather than a downward "V", which jabs into your Achilles-tendon, if you do not have perfect foot-plant due to an old injury. For me; one shoe is fine, but the other shoe jabs my Achilles-tendon due to an old back-injury. If you do not have perfect foot-plant, due to an old injury; the narrow toe box will result in the toes jamming into the side of the shoe, causing pain. For me; one shoe is fine, with the toes held snug against the sides of the foot-box, but the other shoe jams my small toes against the side of the shoe, due to my less than perfect foot-plant, due to an old back-injury. The toe-box should be wider. They fail to make toe-boxes wide enough, because a wide toe-box does not look fashionable. They should have softened the leather above the toes, or allowed more height above the toes. This shoe should have eye-lets for the laces all the way up; rather than the two, hooks at the top. This boot is not tall enough to need hooks. You would be able to get the shoe on and off easily with eye-lets all the way up; with no fumbling with the laces. The sides of the top of the shoe, on either side of the tongue; where the laces go; should come much closer together over the tongue; about a half-inch closer from either side. Seems all the shoe companies these days hire designers for fashion; rather than for function; and the designers never walk a mile in the shoes they design; if they did, their feet would hurt. If you have perfect foot-plant; you may not experience any of the pain that I did with these shoes.