These are some of the best dress shoes you can get, especially for the price. They have a Vibram sole and the quality of the leather is quite good. They do not come "shiny" or pre-polished like some leather shoes do. If you want these shoes to shine- and they will, if you devote the time and effort- you will have to get it done yourself. I recommend black Kiwi Parade Gloss polish, a polish applicator, and a white rag. Bates shoes are used by military institutions- I attended Wentworth Military Academy & College in 2011-2013 and Bates was standard-issue there- and by the U.S. Armed Forces. They are also commonly used within law enforcement. I'm not sure just what the reason is, but they make excellent uniform shoes. Oxford-style, with no flair or extravagance, and despite the criticisms from some owners, I have found these shoes to be as good as I could ask for. They take some walking around to "break in" the leather, and as I said, the polishing takes time and patience, but those are just facts, not really a problem.I wore a pair of Bates leathers on a daily basis for 2 years, and once I had them polished up and the leather had been worn in, they were like a pair of formal-looking sneakers. The soles did become rather flat and smooth after enough walking around, so some traction and grip was lost. But I never had any serious trouble there. I had to stand and walk in these shoes for hours at a time, and the fact that I was willing to spend so much money replacing them (left my old pair behind when I graduated) some 4 years later speaks volumes of what I think of them.I do have one complaint, and this is more about Bates than these leathers themselves. They make another type of shoe- Amazon lists them as "Men's High Gloss Work Shoes" but at Wentworth we always called them "Corframs"- and the two are nearly identical in shape and sole, being different only in the material used in the part of the shoe upward from the sole. Despite their close style and shape, these two Bates shoes do NOT use the same sizing scale. I wear a 10.5D most of the time, and that includes the Bates gloss shoes. But with the leather shoes, it is 9.5D, and I did not especially enjoy finding that out the hard way when ordering them online. To avoid trouble between different kinds of Bates dress shoes, get them in person at the PX or at a civilian store if possible. This lack of continuity between those two types of shoes is the reason I took off a star, but don't get me wrong- on quality and comfort of wear, these shoes will do the job.