The five stars are for probable durability. I also find these gloves very useful. Additionally, my return was handled extremely efficiently. Fit/size: I can see 4 potential issues with getting the correct size in these gloves. How wide is your palm (most important). How thick is your wrist (somewhat important). How long are your fingers (mostly unimportant). How thick are your fingers (mostly unimportant). This following size chart (from the Speedo site) addresses palm width: AQUATIC FITNESS GLOVES SIZE CHART S M L XL 8.0cm 8.5cm 9.0-9.5cm 10.0-10.5cm Note: Width: Measure horizontally across the palm. (Although my palm is about 9.5cm across, squarely in the Large category, this size would have been to large for me.) This criteria for fit is the most important. If the gloves are too large in the palm, they will feel loose on the hand. I purchased two pairs of Speedo swim training gloves, one XL and one M, for my wife and I. I returned the XL, partly because they were too big and loose on the body of my hand. I now use the medium size purchased for my wife. This pair is also a bit loose. This becomes especially evident when swimming. I think the wet material tends to stretch, fill with water, and they feel like they balloon out a bit. I have fairly small wrists. For the fit, this somewhat/slightly important. I think the size of the wrist opening and the position of the velcro closure is related to the glove/palm size; i.e. XL has a larger wrist opening than the Small size. Not only do my Medium sized gloves seem a bit too large on the palm, I feel like, in order to keep the glove on my hand, I should adjust the velcro closure to the minimum aperture size. (two downsides to this adjustment: the velcro makes limited contact and the excess strap flops around on every stroke). Length of fingers: I have not found it useful to make a size comparison to other kinds of gloves. I have what I think of as large to very large hands (at maximum spread, tip of thumb to tip of little finger = 23.5cm). It is difficult for me to find work gloves that fit. I have (literally) tried on many hundreds of pairs of work gloves. When gloves do fit, they are almost always XXL size, and even those are often too small. I own about 10+ pairs of winter gloves, all XL and XXL. Perhaps the difficulty is long fingers? (middler finger, right hand = 9cm). While fit is critical for me with gloves with fingers, it is not an issue with with the Speedo fingerless swim gloves. Whether my fingers protrude from the gloves .5", or 1.5", does not seem to substantially affect either comfort or function. Size of the finger holes: the finger holes on these medium gloves are also a bit too large for me. This seem to affect the way the gloves function: a strong forward stroke seems to push back the material around the edge of the finger, creating resistance. Also: water seems to enter the glove around the fingers, creating more resistance. However, I do not find this a problem. I have to work harder against the resistance, and that is why I am using the gloves. Durability: I have used these about 10 times while swimming and snorkeling in both ocean, and pool. I have not noticed any wear issues. Note: These gloves may not help you swim faster. I have noticed, especially when snorkeling, that the greater surface area these gloves provide does seem to give me more power, at least for a few hard strokes. When swimming laps, the greater resistance makes me work harder (which is good, right?), but it does not increase my overall speed. Indeed, my time for ten laps increases. When I remove the gloves, however, it feels like I can fly through the water. (neighboring swimmers have assured me that this was not the case).