little stiff, but a good shoe. Not a comfortable fit

I wear a 7.5W, and finding good shoes is an adventure. I was torn between these and a couple other Merrell and Keen models, but I finally chose this one on the ratio of good reviews to bad. I fully expected to have to go to a size 9 on these, but the width worked well, and I don't feel any strange rubbings internally, as noted by some other reviewers. These are very firm, out of the box, and in my (minimal) breaking in period, I can tell that they will protect my feet during light and medium hiking. I have gotten my feet wet a bit, and haven't noticed any soak through, but I wouldn't ford a stream in these unless I was being chased. I hope, being Merrells, these will perform reasonably well under normal wear and tear, but I'll update if not. These are very low on my ankle (good for me) but you can't quite tell that from the picture. If you need ankle support, these are not the shoes for you. I paired these with Lorpan Ultralite socks and they fit well. I am excited that they don't dig into my heels like my Keens or Altras do during break in.

Very happy