Matterhorn Men's 10" Water Resistant Insulated Combat Boots

These boots are great. sometimes I forget I have boots on when I wear them. I buy one pair every 4 years!!!!

The short review:* The size is very unforgiving.* Kind of ugly.* Completely ineffective speedlace system.* Short laces.* Good, thick leather.* Good sole.* Very supportiveThe long review:My feet are not the same size - this will become important. As I usually do, I bought these boots to fit my larger foot, which is half a size larger than my smaller. When the boots arrived in the mail, I was immediately impressed by the strong leather smell and the heft of the boot. The sturdiness of a boot is very important to me, so I was rather heartened by this. I put the first boot on my smaller foot and could not believe how well it fit - it was as though it were a custom boot! It was quite snug but not too small, the padding on the sides and insole was just heavenly, and yet I still had toe room, so it didn't feel close. I was in heaven.Then I put the other boot on.Until that day, I had no clear concept of what torture might feel like. The boot was so tight that after only 10 minutes of wearing it, I couldn't feel the outside of my foot anymore. Seeing as I really liked the design of the boot, I decided to give it one more chance, thinking it might stretch with wear, and wore it to my sister's wedding reception. BIG MISTAKE. I can deal with pain rather well, so I just ignored my foot's complaints during the course of the day - it was still better than the rental shoes. When I got home, I discovered that I had no feeling at all in half of my foot...and it didn't return by the next morning! Thankfully, I did eventually get feeling back, but it was rather unpleasant, all round.Other small irritants:* The lace was far too short - the boot can't be removed just by loosening the laces, and there isn't enough lace to wrap around the top. I would recommend a 10 foot lace to accomplish both - I think it comes with a 6 footer.* The speedlace system is a joke. Rather than fixed brass loops, they are composed of captured, triangular wire loops which rotate freely. The problem with this is that the wire loop cinches down on the lace, preventing it from sliding, when tension is placed on the lace. The best strategy I discovered to tighten the laces properly was to keep the lace taught while threading it in - once it was laced, it was stuck.I will just say one more thing: if you want a boot like the classic US military boot that your dad wore, this isn't it. It is rather nice, though, if you can get it to fit.EDIT: When I returned the boots, the shipping label was not pre-paid, so I had to pay for return shipping myself (about $25). Kinda bummed about that.EDIT #2: It appears that my feet have surreptitiously grown in width, so the regular-width boots I ordered were just not the right size. I have updated my fit assessment to match.