I have to admit, when I first received these in the mail I thought, 鈥淲hat the heck! These were supposed to be over two inches thick!鈥 I thought I鈥檇 be sending them back. Then I saw the enclosed information form that explains that the sponges are vacuum packed and that they would expand upon opening the package. Sure enough, once the package was opened and the sponge was exposed to water it puffed up fully. The sponges seem like a decent product.