I wanted to loosen the laces, tie them, and then make slippers out of them. It worked, although initially they felt a little tight in the front. I decided that I would go for it, thinking that either they would stretch a bit or I would get used to them. It seems to have worked because they are more comfortable now. One weird problem I had was that when I was walking, the right shoe kind of started irritating my pinky toe. It got to the point where I tried putting squares of tape on the inside where the upper meets the sole, but that didn't work. It got to the point that after a few days I thought maybe I couldn't wear them. But somehow the problem went away. How gone. So now they feel good and I can put them on and take them off and am very happy with them.