Well-made, good material, lightweight. High quality. Con's: No pockets on jacket inside. Sheesh!

Great shoes helped that i went to their outlet store and tried on another shoe style to make sure proper fit and comfort.

In the past 3 years, I have bought 4 styles of Asics running shoes and these are my favorite!

My sell points for determining that these are "good" sneakers:
1.) Toe Space - I have problems with my toes going numb if I don't have adequate room in the toe box. To accommodate, I usually order a size 10 and lace up tightly (when I wear a 9 or 9.5) in regular shoes. This causes my shoes to typically wear faster in the heels because they side around a little, but my toes don't go numb after my daily 4 mile trail hike.
2.) Comfort - This includes arch support and overall cushioning. I have bad knees, so I can tell when the cushioning starts to go in sneakers. Mine last almost 3 months exactly when worn for 4 miles daily.
3.) Cuteness - Sorry to be vain but I want sneakers to be cute and have pink on them. These are the only kind I buy. Judge me if you must ;)
4.) Easy to put on / take off - I hate untying my shoes, so I love that these have a loop in the back so I can slip them on with minimal unlacing (lazy).
5.) Doesn't cake-in dirt/mud - When on loose dirt trails, I often encounter dirt & mud that gets caked into my soles, so I favor the Asics styles over, say K-Swiss because the soles don't have a lot of "hiding places" for mud to get packed into.

I compared:
ASICS Women's Gel-Venture 5 - My all time favorite for toe space as well as cushion and arch support and wears well.
ASICS Women's Gel-contend 3 - Wider in the arch area but narrow in the toes and heels.
ASICS Women's Gel-scram 2 - Great toe space but not much arch support to speak of (super-cute though!)
ASICS Women's Gel Frequency 2 - Actually a walking shoe and built much less "tough" and more lightweight but has a flimsy feel to it and comes up short against the back of the heel, so it fit kinda weird.

When I say these shoes "wear well" I mean that they don't look like they are falling apart even after much use/wear. The only indicators of wear that they show are some wear on the inside of the heels but probably only because I wear a half size too big on purpose, and also some fraying where the inner fabric (pink) meets the lace holes. (See pics)

Overall, I love these shoes the best of all I've tried in Asics as well as Adidas, Saucony, Vibram and K-Swiss and won't be straying from the Gel-Venture 5 shoes again. I love them and don't think it gets any better than this :)

love them.