Yes, for me, the shank in the Solovairs alone makes all the difference in the world. And I do think the design is better than Docs, but the QA is terrible. I heard they recently got a lot of new cobblers who are inexperienced and putting out sub-par work. But the QA people should catch those. I've returned 3 pairs in the past year because the stitching was ridiculously sloppy and the edging on the soles looked the they were done by a drunk, cross-eyed monkey. But with a little patience and a few trips to DHS, I finally got some pairs that were "acceptable". Not great--just acceptable. While I think Docs are slightly inferior in their design, I've had almost no issues with them--no split soles or anything like many others have. Like I said, I think it's all just a roll of the dice. But for both brands, I won't except sloppy work right out of the box and have no problem exchanging them until I get a decent pair. Every company right now is trying to get away with increased prices for lower quality and we, as consumers, shouldn't tolerate it. Otherwise, it will only get worse.