I first got a pair of these from the owner of the company as a test pair. I saw ads in Black Belt magazine and sent an e-mail inquiring about the availability. The owner called me to tell me the distribution had been held up for a month and offered to send me a pair. I explained to him that I train in Taekwondo both outdoors on concrete and indoors. I'm a BIG guy, and I promised to tell him about the performance and durabiblty of his product. They lasted a LONG time, performed excellently, and held up under my size better than any other martial art shoe ever has.