Best Everyday Plantar Fasciitis Shoe Orthopedic & Arch Support Women's Mesh Size ATOM 2 Wide

I have had multiple pairs of Kurus now and I love them. I work in a hospital and am on my feet all day. I currently have the Flex Vias as my everyday shoes at work and they are so comfy. Before that I had the Atoms and loved them as well. A good part of my time is spent in a sterile room mixing IVs and am required to have dedicated IV shoes. The ones they provided us were complete garbage so I immediately bought my own for each site I work at, and have replaced them every year or so since. Working in the sterile room is different than other shifts because it’s a lot more standing still and pivoting, not much walking. Standing in one place can all day is almost worse than being on the move and sometimes I feel like I need a wheelchair to get out to my car. This year when I needed to replace them, I decided to try the Atom 2. I really liked the specs on the level of cushioning and support as well as the wider bottoms for stability which I think helps when pivoting. These aspects of the shoe are awesome and are worth the price. HOWEVER, I don’t understand WHY the tongue is so large. It’s not wide but instead just very… poofy. It’s so awkward. Even with the shoe tied, it sticks out so much, almost like bending out over the laces…. Why? It also has flat laces instead of round. Between these two things, it’s hard to lace my shoes to the right tightness. Either they are too loose and my foot is slipping out, or I have to tighten them all the way up which ends up being TOO tight. I can hardly ever find the sweet spot. And when I do, the laces slip untied much easier than others. With the shoe being loose my heel keeps slipping. To offset this, I laced them with an extra horizontal row at the top to make sure they keep my heel in place. This helps, but unfortunately this brings me back to the puffy tongue. When I tighten the laces, the shell of the shoe comes in and scrunches the tongue up, which means the edges of the shoe where the laces are dig into the top of my feet. And the edges are surprisingly stiff and it hurts! After a while, my foot hurts or goes numb because of the pressure. What is the point of the tongue if it’s just obnoxious and annoying? I really should have returned these but I was determined to properly test them out and am annoyed I didn’t trust my gut first reaction. If the Atom 2 could have a baby with the Atom or even the Flex Via (keep the sole and support of the 2, but change to the tongue and laces of the Atom/Flex Via), I think that would be my perfect shoe. Sadly… I’m disappointed I spent so much money on these. But it’s a big deal to me and I don’t think I’d recommend these to anyone else, especially not anyone who has any potentially neuropathy issues.