These shoes are reasonably priced for the value I get from them. I plan to go on an international trip where there's a lot of time at an in the water, and I trust these shoes based on my experience at home so far. I wore around the house a couple of days when I first got them. They did fine and were comfortable. I didn't do anything adventurous in these shoes. I think my shoes look great. They fit around my feet well. I'm not sure where to best put the pull-string when I have the shoes cinched on my feet - I decided to tuck the pull string under the furthest point where the string crosses my feet towards the toes. Seems to work OK to keep the pull string from flopping around. I wore these out kayaking last weekend. Wet for five hours, 3.5 of that being in and out of the water or on the kayak. These shoes were comfortable all throughout. They also did not slip on my feet when I walked in out out of water and had good traction in the water. I've observed that though the water drains quickly from these shoes, they still take quite a while to dry out. So your feet will still be in wet shoes potentially hours after these shoes were splashed by or were in water. The upper fabric and the insole seem to say wet like ordinary light-weight shoes do. I included a photo of my foot right after removing the shoes after returning home from kayaking. I'd been out of the water for 1.5 hours and the shoes were still damp. The point of the photo is to show that the strings that secure the shoes hold the shoes in this way to the feet. The pressure is where the strings are, and is not distributed evenly. This might look like it'd be uncomfortable, but actually it was not. The reason might be because the strings are stretchy. When I first put on the shoes, I adjust the pull tension once or twice after initially cinching down the pull strings. The purpose is to get the shoes tight enough, but not so tight that those strings would press too hard into the foot. In summary, I recommend these shoes based on my experience so far. They seem durable and comfortable, enough that I feel confident to rely on them for my 2 weeks coming in the waters of SE Asia. Read more