OK. I've read all the reviews. I think the company making these are updating their manufacturing techniques bc we haven't encountered the issues folks are citing here, and we've purchased + used - gosh - I think 15 boxes total to date for the past several months (writing this on May 18, 2022). We have had 1 maybe 2 masks where the white strap broke off on 1 side rendering the mask useless, but that's not too bad out of the ~375 we've used to date. I like these masks for 2 main reasons: (1) they're thick, substantial, and not at all flimsy and yes, thick, but structured away from my child's face, she finds them comfortable (well, as comf as it can be wearing a mask all day long in preschool); and (2) my child was only ~3.5yo when she had to start wearing these for preschool and she is teeny tiny -- this was the only mask that fits her face well and STAYS UP + ON! We did have to buy these little rubbery adjuster thingie that we pull thru on the mask straps so we could have full control over the tightness. She's grown a lot though over the past several months and I think that this summer, we won't need to use those adjusters to tighten the masks anymore. And I don't know what folks are freaking out about the stitching pattern... I do not think the mask is compromised in any way but I could be wrong as I'm not a mask manufacturing expert... In any case, these are pretty pricey, but worth it for us to have relief knowing she's comfortable and they're staying on, not slipping down like we see on many other kids. Good luck everyone with this insane pandemic... All of us parents of little ones have been totally forgotten about at this stage and folks do not know their history of prior pandemics...