Sign 1: laces loosened 3 times and still tight on top. Sign 2: rope marks and red grooves when the shoe comes off. Sign 3: you buy a size up, and now it flops in the morning and still bites at night. I had all 3. "Shoes too tight after swelling," one woman wrote on our survey. "Everything is to tight on my toes," wrote another.

A hard shoe is one shape. My foot is not. Standing, heat, long hours, they all push fluid down into the feet and ankles. I did not need a bigger shoe. I needed one that gives.

Most comfort shoes stretch at the toe and nowhere else. These are knit across the entire top of the foot and down both sides, so they give exactly where my foot swells. "I like the stretchy top," one woman wrote on her feedback form. Another: "I can actually get them on. I have wide, puffy feet with upward swelling and very swollen ankles."

"My feet get swollen and my toes don't feel squished when wearing them," wrote a third. "The fit was like I didn't even have anything on my feet." Same here. My ankles are puffy by dinner most days, and these do not leave a mark.

I used to need 2 shoes: the one that fit in the morning and the loose one I switched to after lunch. Now it is one pair. It fits at 8 in the morning and still fits at 8 at night, and when it comes off there is nothing pressed into my skin.

What I wanted is what one woman wrote on our survey, in her own words: "No more tight, swollen, hot feet." And another: "Shoes that I can wear all day and not aggravate my ankles." My feet still swell. The shoe just stopped fighting them.

The toe box is roomy, so my toes spread instead of stacking. The sole is flat and flexible, no heel tipping me forward, which my knees and lower back noticed by the end of the first week.

A lot of us came from the same place. "Sketchers slip ons. They're ok, but my lower body aches when I wear them for a long time," one woman wrote about her old pair. Another: "I need real shoes. I've been wearing crocs because my wide feet have been swelling." These are the real shoes.

Order your usual size, the stretch handles the swelling, and take 2 colors. Every order comes with easy returns, no questions asked, so if the size is wrong you just swap it.

I went back for a third pair last week and my size was already grayed out in 2 colors. If yours is showing in stock, stop loosening your laces and order today.