I purchased these after 2 failures with other ‘great’ brands—wasting hundreds of dollars. I needed comfortable and great looking kicks for a trip to Egypt and Jordan and these proved themselves above and beyond for comfort on planes, walking 4-6 miles per day, being easy to clean, and redefining smooth transitions in foreign airports with multiple checkpoints. I was really hesitant about the folding heel, after all how comfortable could walking on a folded-over piece of leather be? Answer: very comfortable. No ‘princess and the pea’ syndrome, perfectly comfortable because the leather was so soft and my inflamed Achilles was not irritated one bit. I don’t write recommendations, but I highly recommend this shoe.