Men's Nine2Five Coffee & Cream Brown

I have pretty wide toes. I used to really love Keens, especially their original Briggs shoe, but since they sold the company the quality and style isn't there any more. My last pair of Keens didn't even last a year and the sole just fell apart. I also loved that they made my feet look like "Popeye"; like the shoes you see in the Popeye cartoons. But I digress.I started doing some internet sleuthing looking for wide-toed shoes. There weren't many that came up. Lems kept coming up in my searches and not only did it continuously talk about the extra wide toes the shoes featured, it also talked about how these shoes have "zero drop" and they were created for wearing them barefoot; a naturalist footwear.To be honest, I didn't care about the zero drop or naturalist fashion or style of the shoes; I wanted something that my wide toes could fit in without getting all squished.After seeing if they were sold locally (they aren't sold anywhere at all within a 200 mile radius of where I live) I ordered my shoes directly through the Lems website. They charge $10 for shipping (the slowest method possible it seems). Going by the sizes/recommendations on their websites resulted in my shoes being way too small and not fitting at all. So I had to return the shoes at my expense ($14 out of pocket cost) and wait for a large size to arrive in the mail. The larger size fit perfectly for me and I've been wearing them non-stop since I bought them (I don't own lots of shoes - I have just one pair that I wear every day, every season for every occasion - which is why the Nine2Five's looked so nice).The actual shoes themselves I absolutely love. I do miss the big black rubber toe that Keen's have, but my toes are relaxed and comforable and spayed out nice and wide. The shoes come with a thin pad that they recommend taking out, but I leave it in there for a little extra cushion. I do wear compression socks that are white, and the leather from the shoes do make my socks turn brownish. I've yet to be able to remove the brown color from my socks even after adding bleach, so be warned that these shoes might dirty up your white socks, if you wear them like I do.These are exceptionally lightweight - it's so refreshing to wear leather shoes so light - half them time it doesn't feel like I'm wearing any shoes at all. I don't exactly understand how arches on feet work. I do know that when I had my Keens, if I went for a walk, my right foot would start to ache after a certain amount of time. Every walk. Always after a certain time. It would hurt.Since having these, I can go on walks and my foot doesn't hurt hardly as much as it used to. Perhaps having worn these for almost a year now my foot as readjusted to it's natural arch? All I know is that it's comfortable, so it seems to be a good thing.The laces on these shoes broke very early in owning them. I reached out to Lems via their Facebook page asking what the protocol is to get replacement laces and they never replied. I even noticed a comment from another person on my Facebook comment saying it's too bad they don't pay attention or respond. Shame.What I love: I LOVE the shoes. So comfortable. So lightweight. So stylish. I love the leather look. I love the cream colored soles. They are fantastic.What I don't love: I didn't love having to pay my own return shipping when the first pair didn't fit. I didn't love never getting a reply about the laces. I'm not a fan that they turn my socks colors, but I can deal with that, as I don't walk around in my socks without shoes. I didn't love that their sizing is in European, and the sizing on there website can't be trusted. I didn't love that I couldn't go *anywhere* near me to try on a pair or buy a pair local, as that would have avoided me paying a return shipping fee on the first pair.All those headaches aside, I love the shoes themselves. I actually just bought another pair today to have as backups for when the pair I have eventually start to fall apart. But I don't know when that will be as these, despite being very "thin" seem very strong and I haven't had any issues with them.If you are thinking about these, make sure you order them through Amazon where you can get free shipping if you need to do an exchange. Having to pay $10 for initial shipping, then $14 to ship them back is kinda hinkey in a day and age of free shipping and "easy" returns.Oh, also, I should mention their return policy: you are only allowed to return 1 pair. Luckily my second pair fit. I'd hate to see what happens if those didn't fit either and I'm not "allowed" to return them.I rated these five stars for the shoes themselves. I'd rate customer service two stars.TL;DR - the shoes are awesome. Ordering from them sucked.