Quick background on who I am and why I purchased these; I'm a union HVAC mechanic, so I'm used to having to work in a variety of indoor and outdoor environments, as well as working off of ladders, working in snow or mud, and generally climbing all over equipment for servicing. I now work in a more defined role that allows for more liberal footwear choices than the token 8" leather work boot, so long as they are safety-rated for work sites.
I was very specific in what I was looking for, and in most areas, these do fit the bill. As an avid backpacker and trail runner, I have been wearing zero drop shoes for a while now, and was looking for as minimalist of a work shoe/boot as I could find, as this would really be the final touch in getting my feet and body used to zero drop, minimalist footwear, since I'm on my feet at work for 8 hours plus, daily. I'm not sure what the actual drop is in mm, but the expensive Red Wing boots I'd grown accustomed to working in were like high heels compared to my hiking and running shoes. Despite minimalist footwear being very popular a few years ago, it has declined in recent years, and for whatever reason, never really made its way into the work shoe world, only running and hiking. There just aren't many options out there for steel-toe zero drop shoes. These are nice and flat from heel-to-toe, and the toe box has some nice room to it for toe splay, depending on the width of one's foot. I have slightly narrow feet, but if I was wide-footed, I would definitely get the "E" width for some nice toe room. They do seem to run a half-size larger, but I still would order the same size to ensure that extra width in the toe box. They are heavier than one would think, likely due to the heavy-duty EH sole and the steel toe. While certainly not as light, flexible, or ground-sensitive as a true minamalist shoe, after much research, these are as close as you're going to get to minimalist in the safety shoe market. I do have durability concerns; when I first pulled mine out of the box, the left shoe already had a broken lacing loop on the tongue. The right on was not broken, but I was unimpressed with the sturdiness of material and thread job used on the tongue loop. I contemplated exchanging them for new ones, but figured it wasn't a big enough issue to deal with the hassle. They've proven durable otherwise so far in various indoor/outdoor work sites, are nice and comfortable, and have nice grip on ladders and slab.
They have a skater-shoe look to them, which is fine, but they look like shoes, so if you're looking for something that can pass as a boot in work
pants, look elsewhere. If you're in the market for a zero drop safety shoe, then this is as good as anything available.
