The reason I gave that 2 stars is because right out of the box, between the layers on the right side of the right boot, there is a bit rubbing on my foot. It's probably big enough to give me a blister walking around for hours, but not big enough to take a proof photo. It must be accidentally folded skin that cannot be straightened. However, it's annoying enough that I don't really know if I'm as excited as I should be. this is a nice shoe. I put mine in conditioner as soon as I got them, which I recommend, but try them on first. So the fact that these shoes are slightly less wide doesn't worry me in the slightest, although I was hoping for the roominess that my previous (no longer for sale) pair of NB shoes have, these shoes are close enough to the ones I have labeled most of the time so I might find it different if I'm wearing thick wool socks.