"These are nice shoes. They are too tight in the upper heal and pinch and rub my skin there so they do need to have some sort of protection to prevent blisters. I used some bandaids. I expect that if I broke them in more they would be better. The "Cork" bottom is laminated which could be good or bad. In my case the laminate is starting to peel so I don't know how much use I will get. I bought these for a work trip and ended up wearing sneakers after the first day as they were to distracting in their discomfort"