text: I have been wearing Belleville boots for the last 4 years. I was issued a pair of steel toes in the military and from then on was a Belleville fan. After separating from the military, I was hired on for a security officer position and had to find a pair of black boots. Naturally I turned to what I knew and I was excited to get a new pair of boots since I have been rocking the same 2 pairs of Bellevilles since 2011. Queue the issues.<br /><br />The first thing I noticed was how difficult the boots were to get on. Specifically the right one. There is a hard notch that juts into the boot where the fabric meets the solid bottom portion of the heel. I don't know what you would call that but it was a major pain and is probably the issue that people complained about digging into their heel. Once I got it on I noticed that the &#34;wide&#34; fit was no longer the same &#34;wide&#34; that my old boots were. These were more narrow for my foot and were pushing in on my little toes. However the length was good. (I ordered same as my street shoe size). I thought these two issues would go away with a break in period so I tried them out.<br /><br />Second issue was when I had to walk through the metal detectors at work. There appears to be traces of metal somewhere in the sole maybe that set them off. I'm not sure but now to get through the metal detectors I had to remove my boots and attempt to slip them back on on the other side. Now I thought, okay, I need another pair of boots but I can still keep these as a back up.<br /><br />Third and final issue. After 1 week of wear, I went to slip my boot back on and the stitching on the back blew out. I'm assuming from the stress of my heel on the fabric was too much to handle and now I had a nice dime size hole.<br /><br />That same day however I was contacted by the owner of outdoor sports asking for a review of the product. After responding and telling him my issues he put me in contact with the return department. I few emails laterthey sent me a pre-paid fedex label and said all I had to do was pack up the boots, slap the label on there and drop it in the nearest fedex drop box. I received my money back within a few days of dropping it off.<br /><br />Final Conclusion (tl;dr): I had a very disappointing experience with the boots durability and fit and am sad to say that I have now turned back to Bates, but the customer service was phenomenal and I can't thank them enough for being so helpful.