I am glad I came to Amazon to purchase these items I have kept in my closet in case my sciatic nerves act up again, but this helped relieve a little pain from pressure and allow me to function

These are fine. Honestly, haven't opened the vacuum sealed wrap. What I want the retailers to know is that I suspended the shipment for "come in fewer packages" and ended up with a huge box, lined with 2 other huge boxes, then separately, 5 more bags. So the crutches were ALONE, in 3 huge boxes! BS! Don't act like you are ecologically minded by offering fewer boxes...complete BS.

Tips do not articulate
Def require extra cushioning for both hands and under arms
Style more comfortable than conventional
No crutch is fun

Why pay more than twice as much for the "Inmotion Pro" version ($120)? This Life crutch ($50) seems very sturdy, comfortable, light and elegant. I guess the difference is that the other has a fancier shape, heavier handles with right/left flanges to lean on, and comes in colors, and has rocking tips and apparently a spring. Also it has an elastic cord inside that is supposed to make it easy to fold the pieces, meaning that the cord will be stretched and rubbed against the metal rims whenever you do that: not a good idea in hiking poles, much less for crutches, because you're trusting your life to a rubber band. If you weigh more than 300 pounds, you *might* want the pro; otherwise, why bother? I happened to have the same heavy grips (ordered separately, tried to return, they said just keep 'em); put those on, but changed back: really too heavy and annoying, because they only work one way, so crutches are not interchangeable. These grips that come with the Life crutch are solid plastic (no padding to shred), like bike handles, and half the weight (seriously!) and there's no right or left to worry about. Both grips slant downward, which is just fine, and the cheap ones have a longer screw socket, which is good. The non-rocking tips and the lack of spring mean less rinky-dink tech to break (and I worry when I put my weight on a crutch or pole and it compresses; feels like the ground is shifting). You will want to take the grips to the hardware store and get a locking washer, the split kind, which comes free with the pro grips. The underarm portion has a cheap tube of padding around it, which will probably shred, and I suppose you can get pipe insulation to fit, or something cool at a bike shop, to replace this when you need to. (I bet ths is why they say this cheaper set is only good for a month's use!) Duct tape will help. If you like colors, you could pimp your gimp (Doonesbury ref.) with spray-on enamel.

I had a problem with the little buttons, not having that strong a pinch. I found that it helped to step on the crutch top while pinching buttons with one hand and twisting the top (bottom) piece with the other. Twisting first, to get the buttons out of line with all those holes, otherwise you have to keep pinching as you pull the end, and this is hard. Twist to put the buttons out of sight and pull that foot-end till it is as long as you like (count holes), then twist back till you see the buttons again, and let them pop up.

These things are light and stable and less obtrusive than the crutches with two sides, and the hook top is useful to pull at things from a distance, like a shepherd's crook. So far so good!

I like these much better that traditional crutches. R stars because the grips slip of occasionally, and they are a little more challenging to store than traditional crutches because of their shape. Would definitely recommend.