I purchased these at an outlet about 4 or 5 years ago and used them for mountain hiking about five times. On one of those trips, I stepped on a loosened shoelace, which caused the end of the left shoelace to fray, so I burned it with a lighter (see photo 7). Since I've been mainly using shoes from another brand recently, I haven't used these in about 3 years and they've been stored in a shoe box. That's why I'm listing them for sale.