I've always hiked in tall leather heavy duty boots. I decided to try to break out of my dinosaur ways with a lightweight option and chose these. First impression, they have a LOT more rigidity than expected (they were stiffer than my last pair of Danners out of the box.) I have a hard time finding boots that keep my heel in the pocket without elaborate lacing techniques and duct tape, but these are perfect, although probably too narrow for those with wide stompers. I've done some running in them, and they cushioned the pounding nicely, and were light enough to work. My first hike in them was a cross country 9 miler, mostly in rough, sharp, southwest desert rock. They were incredibly comfortable, had plenty of grip, and held up fairly well. This was sharp terrain, so the toe cap looked rough, and all of the soft foam in the sole was abraided, so I have some concerns on whether they will hold up to the type of rocky trails I frequent, but they should be good on less nasty jaunts. Being in the desert I have yet to prove the waterproofness, but being new they should do fine. They only get 4 stars due to the amount of damage they took on their first hike, but still 4 due to all the other pros and the fact that it was miles of nasty rocks that inflicted the damage. I'm thinking that I may stick to my old leather boots for cross country routes off trail, and use these for everything else, they have become my go-to boots.