My 8 year old daughter wears through shoes quickly so I'm hesitant to spend a lot on them, but I also don't want her to have foot problems sometime down the road because Mama pinched buying cheap shoes. I always buy her shoes on amazon.com for the price factor, but buying without trying on has proven difficult at times. Her feet are hard to fit, most shoes she says feel tight across the tops and on the sides. I took a gamble and ordered these in the regular and not wide (pinching again, wide was $20 more!) and planned on buying the wides if these didn't fit. They fit like a glove and she LOVES the laces. She was constantly tying the laces on her old shoes and it drove her crazy. I wanted all of her previous shoes to be tie laces to make sure she had that skill cemented, I think we're good on that now. The laces are stretchy (bungee) so they're comfortable. Her favorite color is aqua so she was excited that they're both cute and feel good on her feet.Ordered these in a 5 for my child, who takes a size 4.5. I wanted a little growing room for him. At the same time, I ordered another pair of New Balance (similar style, #631) in a size 5.5. THAT size 5.5 was smaller than this size 5. In my opinion, these run a 1/2 size too big. The description says they have a bungee closure and I didn't notice this when I ordered. In other words, they don't have traditional laces to tie. This actually has turned out to be great. My boys wear their sneakers for general running around and so this is an easy on feature. If they were hard core athletes, they'd probably need the laces to adjust/tie. So that's personal preference (the 631 had the same bungee closure) The colors are strong and sporty. The sizing is really the only quibble I haveI guess I missed the description that said this had a bungee type shoe string. It isn't the normal bungee type string that can be tightened or loosened with a clasp either. It is just an elastic string through the lace eyelets that can not be adjusted at all. This works well for the me since I purchased them as an extra pair for my daughter to wear when we were going somewhere that her play shoes would not do (she tends to get her shoes really dirty in play and wears them out very quick). These look nice and are easy to slip on and off. I would be concerned if she was using these in sports though since you can not tighten them.This is the best looking/fitting shoe that I've bought so far for son who has wide feet. The sneaker has a nicely contoured fit. Our son has wide feet just at the ball of his foot & other shoes tend to fit big all over. The laces are bungey-cord type & have just the right flexibility for on/off & not too tight or loose. No shoes in house, so this is a nice alternative to velcro for easy on/off. Our kiddo said "I won't fall anymore stretching for the football. Why? They're new balance sneakers, like Mom & Dad's" (lol). Anyway, it's just been a week so not sure how they'll hold up. But for $30 pricetag, we've already purchased the next size up!Just got this for my 5 year old daughter and it's great! Didn't realize I ordered it in "Wide" but it fits her perfectly and still some room in the toe area for growth. Love the no laces and just slip on for a kindergartener on the go!This is a wonderful pick for kids! Great looking shoe, easy to put on and the very best part - no laces to TIE without looking dorky. Gives the child independence to be able to put his shoes on by himself. And no more slopping around half the day with their shoelaces dragging in the mud or falling on their face with they or someone else steps on them. YAY!!! for elastic laces!!!My son loves his new shoes! The elastic "shoe lace" is snug w/o being tight so he can slip them on but they hold tight enough so they don't fall off. An added bonus is I don't see the elastic wearing out as fast as the hook and loop of velcro.We bought this as the third pair of sneakers (the other two are of different brands) for my 10 year old daugter for the new school year. As always, New Balance stands out once again! Now this is the only pair of sneaker she would wear. She loves it!