Okay, after zooming in on all the pictures on various sites, I don't think my shoes are probably knock offs. The glued down label is sloppy on my pair, but the label does look exactly like the ones online, just mine is crooked and a little glue oozed out the side. Everything about the construction of the sole looks the same. On some sites the shoes look more distressed and dirtier, which mine don't, but the color of mine is almost dead on to what is shown on the Madden site.

So...fraud alert canceled.

Oh good Traci!

Glad to hear that they are the real deal! As far as the generic box goes, maybe they were a return. Probably why they were so much cheaper than the other ones. They look great and I know you will love them. I love mine. They are surprisingly quite comfortable to wear and even the interior leather is soft against my skin. No hard spots to rub blisters and the cushiony foot bed is great!

Your new shoes look lovely! I've gotten shoes in generic boxes like that from Amazon before. I assume the original box was just to damaged to survive shipping.

I actually think the Freebird boxes are pretty generic looking. I was just in a local shop that has a bunch of styles on sale -- this is where I bought my Quails and I am quite sure they are legit -- and they had a pile of the boxes stacked up. Very basic brown corrugated cardboard.

And I agree that the shoes are definitely handmade, not refined, and likely to be rougher around the edges than other shoes.

So glad these are likely real. I buy a lot from Amazon and have never gotten anything fraudulent but it is a good reminder to be vigilant.

Have you decided whether or not to keep?

They look really nice on you. The heel height would make me hesitate but they sure look good.

Robin, I will admit I've already been thinking how nice they'd be if I could get a cobbler to trim a bit off the heel. I'm pretty sure I'll keep them, but they'll be more dress up shoes, not every day shoes. I do wish there were a similar looking shoe with less of a heel...I would live in that shoe.

They don't feel high to me at all. My daughter claims they look like "foot jail" though.

I'm so tempted by these. In my size they're around $97.00 but compared to the original price that doesn't seem so bad. They're listed as having a 3" heel though. I wish they were 2 1/2" -- my preferred heel height.

I'm not a fan of a high heel usually, but this heel is very manageable and stable.

If you're thinking about having the heel reduced, I'd just return them if I were you. I've heard that is not easily done to a shoe.

Maybe they just need some practice?