New Balance Women's 577 V1, 9 Wide

Let me start by saying the shoes are comfortable enough. If you are used to wearing standard sneakers and have normal sized feet, you'll probably think these are great. The sole is comfortable (at least so far) and the toe box is roomier than average. For me personally, they're a little snug. I wore "barefoot" shoes for about a year. And while the cushion-less soles eventually wreaked havoc on my knees and sciatica, I got accustomed to being able to spread my toes out when I walked. As a result, regular sneakers cause me no end of troubles with my toes, including rubbing my pinky toe raw because it can no longer handle rubbing up against the interior of the shoe all day. I've gone through a number of brands, including comfort heavyweights like Skechers and Dr. Scholl's, to no avail. I ordered these in extra wide, thinking for sure that would provide me enough room in the toe box to mitigate the rubbing. If these are "extra wide" I'd hate to see what the narrow looks like! These fit more in line with what I'd expect from a normal wide in other brands. They're extremely tight on the tops of my feet and despite having a roomier toe box than other brands still squeeze my toes more than I would like. I'm hoping they just need to be broken in. They still fit slightly better than others I've tried, and the toe box is definitely better than other brands which come to more of a point. I also appreciate that the upper portion of the shoe being 100% leather which will hopefully soften with time so they don't feel as constricting. If there's any change in fit after wearing them for a while, I will edit my review accordingly.