New Balance Men's 577 V1 Hook and Loop Shoe (Open Box)

I have worn the NB MX608 through several versions for many years. I found this was a shoe that fit me and was comfortable. I have a wide foot and I have gout. So when I find something that works, I stick with it. I found the shoe about 5 years ago shopping on vacation and was delighted with it. So when I got back home (we don't have the extensive footwear stores here - Payless, Wal*mart - and various poorly stocked sporting goods or department stores. Forget finding a specific style in multiple widths.) I looked it up on Amazon. Hallelujah they had it! I have replaced this shoe many times through Amazon without incident. This time, they had gone to the (my last order was a v3) v4. When I first looked it up, I found the black/black listing and they didn't have 12 4E, or hardly any other size (I think there were only 3 or 4 sizes listed) so I figured they might be phasing it out. So I searched for "black leather New Balance" size 12 width 4E and this was one of the options I found. I thought the velco straps might be handy (I had previously used the Wally World cheapo shoes with the velcro straps and although they are nothing great, the wide ones would get me by in a pinch). I ordered these. I received them. I tried one on. It is tiny. I figured they pulled the wrong size, so I looked on the box. Says 12 4E. Ok maybe the factory messed up and put the wrong shoe in the box. I looked on the label. It says 12 4E. I tried it on again - maybe the bottom had folded or something. Nope tighter than most D shoes. So I got out a caliper and measured the shoes to see if it was just my imagination. Now I know leather shoes stretch over time, but their soles don't. I measured the maximum width of the sole where the leather joins it. On the MX608 it was 4.685" on the MW577 it was 4.420". That is a difference of 0.265" - over a quarter inch. (For a real idea of how much of a difference this is, take a pair of shoes that fits comfortably and put 4 quarters side by side alongside your foot.) Measuring the sole itself (this is more error prone since some soles taper out more than others but on these two shoes, they look pretty close) I measured 4.935" on the MX608 and 4.600" on the MW577. That is a difference of 0.335". I realize that there is no exact size descriptions in the shoe industry, but I would expect that shoes of a similar style from the same manufacturer would not be off my this much. The good news - Amazon is awesome and they will take them back. I found another listing for the MX608V4 in Black that has the 4E size and ordered it. I don't expect any problems as I went from the original to the V2 to the V3 with no change in fit so I expect the V4 to be fine.