Very easy to put on shoes, after back surgery. The hook at the top is convenient to put it over a table or a chair or something. If you use it as a shoehorn for normal shoes, no way you would bend this. If you give it to a child to abuse, they could easily break it. I don’t know about really tight boots, as one of the reviewers complained, but I doubt you would break this thing if you use common sense.See full review