These shoes are fine for the price but they are a bit odd. I bought both the black satin and the black patent leather. The leather on the patent shoes is slightly thicker than on the satin shoes, which is good. You run into less of the problem that you can see the contours of your toes on this shoe, which is a problem on the satin one. The sole is very thin though, and is actually two separate pieces (one at the ball of your foot, one at the heel), which makes them more foldable. This also means that they have zero support, and don't provide a lot of protection between your foot and anything on the ground. The other funny thing is that, if the shoe is slightly too long, it actually bunches up underneath your foot (because the sole is in two pieces, so the part of the shoe under your arch is actually just a piece of patent leather that can bunch up). In retrospect, it might be a good idea to order a size down because the leather is flexible enough that it would probably stretch a lot (in that sense, much like a leather ballet shoe), and most of the problems I mention would likely be less noticeable on a shoe that is more snug on your foot. The thing that these shoes would be really great for are situations (like job interviews, etc) where you want to travel in one pair of shoes (these) and then put on nicer ones when you get to your destination -- these fold up and come in a nice little bag, so you could easily put them in your purse after you arrive at your destination and change into your heels. I'm not totally disappointed for the price, but am not thrilled either. As between the satin and the patent leather, I think the patent leather is better because the problems I mention above are less noticeable.