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I've been wearing Merrells for several years. I recently purchased these because I'm doing a lot of work in wetlands, and I needed something that could handle both the wetland water/mud and the upland grass/gravel/etc. I haven't worn them very much yet, for one very important reason.These shoes, despite being the exact same size as all of the other Merrell's I've purchased, are too large- even with socks. Probably a half size too big. I'm going to be returning them for a smaller size- I'll try to remember to update my review once I've gotten that problem taken care of!

Update: I ended up needing a full size smaller in the Tawas than in any other Merrell I've worn. But, now that I've got the right size, I'm delighted with the Tawas! They fit and wear pretty much like a regular shoe, but they let the water in and out easily and dry really fast. You do need to wear some sort of sock in them if you're going to be doing much walking, though, because the seams on the inside are a bit rough.

I've been wearing Merrells for several years, and these shoes are my most recent pair. I usually only have one pair of shoes that I wear regularly, so I end up wearing my shoes in lots of situations.Overall, this is a good pair of Merrells, but not the best I've had. I always replace the insoles anyway, but in this case, I was surprised to find that there is literally no other padding under the ball of the foot. Unless you have tougher feet than mine, you will definitely want to replace the insoles. Once I did that, I've enjoyed these shoes quite a bit. They're comfortable and supportive, although for some reason I can't quite put my finger on, they're not quite as comfortable as some of my previous Merrells.

The ventilation seems to be good, and my feet are definitely cooler than they've been in previously owned waterproof but non-Goretex hiking boots. The soles have pretty good grip, but the lugs are shallower than on some other Merrell hiking shoes, and they seem to get plugged up by heavy clay-type mud.