I am buying these Gel-Kayano's about 10 years after the last one. I am not disappointed. During my marathon running years I ran 23 marathons, and twenty 50km runs (31 miles), in these shoes and trained for more than 10,000 miles of running. After trying several brands, I settled on these, luckily fairly early in my running days. For amateurs, such as myself, I believe this is the best running shoe ever made. I tried at least a half dozen other brands and types, most of them, I did not use for more than a couple of hundred miles, because they caused "this or that" foot problems. I have good legs and feet for running; no pronation, arch, or asymmetry issues, which can cause some shoes to not work for you. I don't run anymore, and haven't run for 10 years, because of back problems and have been doing endurance bicycling. I have now started walking for fitness, especially during rainy days when biking is not fun. To get myself going I purchased these Kayanos and they are just as good as the last set. I also liked Amazon's "try before you buy" deal, because without that, I would not risk getting shoes that may not fit or have other problems. Since I am familiar with these shoes, I got the right size the first time. You do need to size up one size on these, at least in my experience.As to their performance in my experience, I still have a lot of my used-up shoes, which I have been using for everyday walking, shopping etc. I used to use them for 450-500 miles of running, which is on the high side, but I was not a very fast runner, and not capable of winning (I kept track of all running data in a spreadsheet including shoe mileages). I also ran one rain-soaked trail ultra-marathon in these, but did not finish (DNF!). I didn't do much trail running, and these shoes are not good for it. They got soaked and heavy and contributed to the quitting. A lot of elite runners didn't like these because they are heavier and can be slower than some shoes might be. Durability is not a concern for these runners. Their best shoe would be a light one that lasts them a hundred miles (time to break-in before the marathon, and one marathon). So, there you have it. I hope that your experience will be as good as mine. If not, you can always buy another brand next time. Running shoes don't last long, especially if you run in them.