Since these are work shoes, they needed to be more comfortable. Also the strings are a bit short to my liking. I put inserts in them to aid in the comfort, but the right shoe in particular makes the top of my foot over my little toe back to my arch hurt after being on my feet for several hours. I have had to physically remove the shoe to relieve the pain at times. I'm not sure this is a breaking in thing with the shoe. But if it doesn't adjust over the next few day's I'll consider it a defective shoe and return it. I have not had any problem with other shoes, just this brand and model.