text: I've been on a long search for the right shoes and heard Mizunos were good. I tried these because they seemed to provide a good balance of minimal shoe with a bit extra padding. I have a size 9 foot, extra wide, so ordered these in a size 10. There is about half a thumb's-width of room between my toe and the end of the shoe. When laced up loosely, these shoes are fine width-wise, however the ankle slips to the point where it seems dangerous to run in them. If I tighten the ankle then the width is too narrow. The laces seem very unforgiving.<br /><br />However I'd say the part that really rubbed me the wrong way about these shoes (literally) is a plastic sort of piece at the end of the tongue of the shoe near the toes. It rubs right along the bone behind my big toe on both feet, and after running only eight miles in them developed a blister that popped and bled through the shoe. I didn't realize how bad it was until looking down mid-run and seeing a bright red splotch of blood on my bright white shoe. The tongues also do not have a loop at the top, only at the mid-section, so you cannot lace them properly to keep the tongue from moving around, so even when trying to adjust the tongue of these shoes multiple times to keep the plastic bit from rubbing, the tongue would eventually move on its own anyway, causing one of the most horrific blisters I've ever had.<br /><br />As far as arch support, it's minimal, which is good for my flat, wide feet, but you'll need to be aware of this if you have high arches. The padding is definitely comfortable. I had blisters on the bottom of my feet from other shoes, but with these I could run and the old blisters didn't hurt at all in the Mizunos because of the padding, so that was nice. It's just a shame that the tongues in these shoes are so incredibly uncomfortable.