Yes, they are the stretchy laces and I was thinking that exact same thing, just replacing them with the regular nylon.

And you're right, there are a gazillion options, a blessing and a curse, haha. I probably would have shopped around more but us fellas are going in less than 2 weeks and I wanted to have time to condition with sandbags in my backpack with these shoes on and these popped up on several best selling lists and it's the 4th model so I figured they'd be good enough (and from what I read, fits my foot type). I tried on about 4 different pairs, different brands, and these were definitely the most comfortable for my more narrow foot and it seemed like I could cinch them accordingly.

I think they'll be fine, but like someone said, they have been known to fall apart and apparently the newer models are worse (planned obsolescence, predetermined life of product. very shady business practice). But I will probably use these for strictly hiking and 2-3 day backpacking.