Gio Sneaker (Women)

I bought these in black and white thinking they would be great cool-weather sneakers, but they are *very* stiff in the toe box and feel more like a work boot to me. The stiffness is not the kind that you would expect to soften up but more like a design feature - hence my comment about them being more like boots. I have a longer middle toe and the shoe would not give at all in the toe box making walking painful. I bought my usual size 8.5 but felt like a 1/2 size too short. Because of the thick sole and boot-like design, a larger size would have been too long and look goofy. I always wear medium width shoes but these were very roomy inside with medium thickness socks and that added to the discomfort making my toes hit the hard toe box on every step. I tried inserting a thin orthotic and that helped the width problem but not the toe problem. Very cute and well made but these are not comfortable to me.