"Shopping for dress shoes is terrible. But these definitely beat any competition by miles! Why? - High Quality leather, straight from Italy - Sturdy base, with solid underside - Soft leather interior, with perforations for ventilation - NO pungent "fake leather" smell, like in other shoes - neither short (no cramped toes) nor long (no annoying bends at toe cap) To be honest, I wasn't sure if I wanted the leather toe cap style, but the great construction won me over!"