I use them for city walking but they're substantial enough for hikers no doubt. Like all shoes they must be broken in, and wearing these without socks on a long hike fresh out-of-the-box would be particularly disastrous. They are well-ventilated but still warm on your feet, the tradeoff with a sturdy closed toe. The bungee lace system is great, but I don't bother to tighten when puttering about the house. I generally wear a 10.5 and these size 10 fit well without socks. With socks I'd need another .5 size but then I'd have no friends. They certainly do not run large, but the toe box is quite wide, which might account for contradictory size advice among reviewer; i.e., your mileage may vary. Like most such products, the heel drops which is not kind to my achilles tendinosis, but wedges pretty much fix that. Others have complained about rough fabric irritating the outer toes, which I too noticed a bit, but that probably indicates poor sizing or a bit of mismanufacturing -- you could probably even MacGyver away this issue with a file. Wear them around the house a while and it should be obvious whether you must exchange them. I did not. p.s. If the floppy laces bother you, tuck them under a lace on top.