These shoes are less than 5 months old. I am in my 50s, I work from home and seldom leave my home - this tear is clearly a flaw in the design, as my shoes are hardly worn. As I look at reviews now, this is quite common. In reaching out to Skechers.com, where I ordered them from, I was told that I could send a claim for "defect" and IF they decided after receiving and inspecting the shoes, that they were defective, then they would replace them. Waste of time and money. The shoes are convenient IF you want to replace them every few months. I'll just get different shoes!