This is how the shoes looked when I opened the box. I'm blown away. However I'm in a bind in that I need some comfortable shoes for my trip and I don't have time to return these and get "new" ones. I sprayed them out with some Lysol and wore them around the house. I have to say they are comfortable and after adjusting the strings (they are not elastic), I've decided to keep them only because it's either these or nothing. I guess we now know what happens to our returns, re-boxed and shipped back out.