Altra Men's Rivera 3 Road Running Shoes Gray Yellow Size 10.5

I had the Rivera 1 and loved those (despite parts of the outsole falling off and not having quite enough cushioning for longer runs). Picked these up after learning they added a bit more foam to the midsole, and while I loved the underfoot feel, the upper construction is terrible. It's basically one big unstructured piece of cheap mesh, making the Rivera 3 look and feel cheaper than some shoes that I can buy at my grocery store that cost half the price. Altra has come a long way with their upper designs in models like the Provision and Torin, and I'd understand if this was a sub-$100 entry level shoe, but for this price, other brands are offering engineering knits or jacquard mesh uppers that perform much better. This shoe just screams "VF wants us to get our margins up." After ripping through uppers or having outsoles peel off of several Altra models in the past few years, I returned these early. I just can't trust this brand to deliver in terms of durability and quality, and these just don't feel like they're remotely worth the price.