These are the best shoes I have owned. I first had a pair of lace-up coronas, but I bought those too big, and lace-ups I think are generally too difficult to put on and take off. The velcros, on the other hand, and very convenient to put on and remove. The comfort is incredible, after the break in period. You should get these where they almost hurt at first, because they will definitely stretch a lot. I wear size 10.5 street shoes, and my perfect corona VCR size is 8.5. What i like about them is they comfortably and snugly fit around every part of my foot: toes, mid-section, and heel. That was important to me, as I was having difficulty doing heel-hooks in my other shoes that had this awkward air gap at the heel. Another thing that may or may not be a consideration is the dye. Since these are basically all white, they don't cause your foot to discolor the way other shoes might (like the red spirit VCRs). Another thing is some shoes have seams on the inside that may create uncomfortable pressure points. I've never had that problem in these shoes. I think it helps that these are able to stretch in all the places where such a pressure point may otherwise occur. As for the velcro, I've always felt that I could tighten them down properly for the right fit. And the velcro in oriented in the proper direction. most shoes get this right, but never get a pair where you pull inward to tighten the shoe. The flaps on each shoe will interfere with each other... That's it. bye.