text: UPDATE2 after a year of use:  I am not an intense skateboarder. I use them as loafers, and they are not the only shoes I wear. After a year, the shoes are showing some wear and tearing beside the little toe, on both shoes.  But they're still going.  The back part tore at the top when I didn't untie my laces properly to remove or put them on.  Most shoes are forgiving of this, not these.  So they are having a beginning stage of falling apart that is taking a long time, and I still like to wear them because of their light weight.  I don't want to replace them, because I'm stubborn and want to get my money's worth, determined to wear them out till they fall apart before I might buy another pair - only in leather next time.   UPDATE1:  I am reducing my rating by one star. shortly after I bought them, the loop at the back, that you grasp to help put them on, came off. Testament to fragile construction. Not happy about that.  Before buying these, I went to a local skate shop in my city to try several brands on. (The clerk at Emp!re was so lazy at first, just chatting with other staff, and then so impolite, that I have absolutely no regrets buying here instead of paying him full retail price).  What I learned, is that Vans are the narrowest, but all brands are extremely narrow and uncomfortable, and while you have to generally go a half size larger, with DC you have to go a full size larger.  To help you better chose the right size, let me give you some background on myself: I wear a size 10 on average. I do have one pair of shoes, for playing soccer, that is 9.5, so I have it snug, as no extra space in front of the toes is desirable. But generally, I buy 10.5 to get a little bit of extra width. I tried these on in the store, and 10.5 fit well, felt light, and it was like you were walking on air. Those were the ones with the large mesh upper.  The ones I ordered are a finer mesh, and are not as comfortable as the ones in the store.  My little toes stick out to the side slightly, as the shoe stretches easily to accomodate your foot's width. In retrospect, I wonder if I shouldn't have ordered a 10, instead of a 10.5, in the case of this model, but I'm thinking that maybe my little toe would be sticking out too far from the side, causing premature wear at that point.  I am generally not impressed with skate shoes. But my well-padded running shoes just don't cut it for skateboarding, and a fall wearing my five-fingers left too much of a gauge on my foot to want to go without skate shoes again.  When I was little, skate shoes, like Converse for example, sold at KMart for $5 a pair. It was what poor parents bought their kids when they couldn't afford better shoes, and us kids hated the experience.  By some stroke of marketing genius, these companies have turned the budget product into a high-priced fasion product with a cult following.  My advice is this (it's what I did), your preferred color might not the the cheapest one there, but your second or third-favorite might be a bargain.  These shoes were about 40 in the size-color combination that I settled on, which is far more reasonable than the 120 they asked in the store for this model. Some of them are under $30, close to 20... but in my size, they were just too ugly. Given they are more comfortable than all other skate shoe models, I think paying about 40 is an OK deal.  But don't go spending 120 on these just because your kid asks for it - none of these skate shoe models are worth that. These are $20 shoes that you accept to pay a little bit extra for on account that they are more comfortable.