To want to buy second hand shoes for my children........

[stressed2007]

am miffed. My son has just totally scuffed the top/front of his new leather ankle boots from clarks (£32 and he has had them since the weekend). He has torn all the leather off the top probably by dragging his feet on floor when using tricycle at nursery. They look wrecked.

This has made me think I can get these second hand for about £5 on ebay - let him wreck these and I can keep new shoes for best (or at least more then a week!).

However if you buy 2nd hand (and they are not kicked to bits) will this damage my childs foot? My mum said that shoes mould to a childs feet and therefore I should n't buy second hand but when I look at my children's clarks shoes/boots (which are quite sturdy things) they don't look moulded to me at all (but I am not an expert).

I have seen threads on here about whether clarks is a con compared to other cheaper shoes so was just wondering what the concensus was on whether second hand (good condition) shoes will damage a child's foot. Any thoughts? Any podiatrists?

[Firawla]

I've heard the same from my mum about moulding to the feet. I wouldn't risk it on shoes tbh.
You could try a clarks discount store we have one near us (north london) i dont know if there are more elsewhere, it comes a lot cheaper. they don't pay attention properly while fitting the shoes on the children but if you already know the size you want...
Unless the shoes on ebay are bnib or something then you will get them cheaper and it'll be worth it, but if another child has already used them i think as well as moulded to that child's foot they would be quite 'well used' anyway?

[edam]

Have replied on your other thread but wanted to say to Firwala that you can't just buy a size X and assume they fit - you need the shoes to be properly fitted. It is possible to check this yourself, though, have a search on old threads.

[cocolepew]

You can buy cheap shoes from any of the supermarkets or cheap shoe stores, my DD has trainers for playing out in, they always come from Shoezone and only cost a couple of quid.

[stressed2007]

Sons feet are an H - can't buy any of my kids shoes from the cheapie places as really they only cater for slim feet. I have to buy clarks or sometimes startrite or other more expensive independent shoe shop makes for the width

[cocolepew]

My other DD is an H and I can get cheap shoes for her.

You're not looking hard enough.

[stressed2007]

Where from? I go everywhere to look - they both fit only about 3 pairs in clarks, my DD does n't fit any startrite shoes at all and the independnet shoe shops (round here) start from about £45 a pair. Do tell.......

[RubberDuck]

stressed - have you tried M&S - they do a wide fitting. Got my kids' school shoes from them this year and have been really impressed. Youngest destroyed a pair of Startrites within half a term last year, the M&S ones are still going strong with very little sign of wear.

[cocolepew]

I get them in Shoezone, but I'm in N.I so I don't know if it's a local shop or not. If you have a Sports Direct near you you'll get branded trainers cheap(er).

[stressed2007]

Think we may have a shoe zone- they do H fittings?

[cocolepew]

They don't actually have sizing but my eldest DD is an H and she has a very high arch that makes it hard for her to get shoes, and she can always get shoes/trainers from there.

Of course she'll only wear Converse now .

[thehairybabysmum]

I only ever buy the shoes/boots with rubbery scuff protecters now for the same reason. Geox are good and i have just bought ds1 some Ricosta boots for winter, they have a piece of rubbery stuff over the toe that stops them scuffing. They are not cheap though but do last the entire winter (unless htey grow fast!)

re your current shoes, you can buy some scuff cover up that bascically dyes the scuffed bits of leather so at least they dont look so bad.

[ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight]

Personally I say Pah to clarks and their shoe/feet hysteria. I appreciate that kids need shoes that fit but I cannot believe that they need to be 30 quid jobs from clarks. Did our parents' generations have squashed, malformed feet? What about children in all the many parts of the world where they don't have clarks? My DH never had his feet measured and they look fine

DS is currently wearing crocs cos I'm just too skint to go to clarks and the free picture of 'my first shoes' doesn't swing it!

[Firawla]

rubber duck do they measure their feet in any m&s stores? ds needs feet measured and wasnt too impressed with my local clarks as i mentioned so would try there if they do

[lljkk]

Nothing wrong with crocs if they obviously fit fine.

"What about children in all the many parts of the world where they don't have clarks? My DH never had his feet measured and they look fine"

MIL was very poor when DH growing up. So DH has a huge ugly bunion on the top of one of his feet; he has high insteps (3 DC have rather high insteps, too). And DC have wide feet (I have wide and high insteps). I don't want DC to have ugly bunions like DH ended up with. Adult male friend has huge ugly bunions on the side of his feet -- also from badly fittd shoes when he was a kid.

Most children in most of the world don't wear shoes at all!!

I do buy and use some 2nd hand shoes for DC, but in the right size (style for their high arches). If bought via Ebay, then I accept that some of them just won't be right when they arrive.

[LuluDanceOnMyGrave]

Well I have huge bunions (well only 1 now as had an op) and I ALWAYS had fitted shoes when I was young. Sometimes it's a family tendency. Unless you're wearing shoes too small constantly, which is not what the OP is talking about, I don't see a problem.

[curiositykilled]

Your mum is correct. Much, much better to educate yourself about how to correctly fit shoes and use that knowledge to buy cheaper shoes that will still give a good fit. Buying secondhand shoes is the worst of all.

Clarks doesn't guarantee correctly fitted shoes but if they are fitted by clarks and checked by you then you stand a good chance of getting the correct fit and it can be hard to find a good fit in cheaper shoes.

IMO the look of shoes is not important, it's the fit so whilst I'd be annoyed that my DS had scuffed the shoes when I'd spent money on them, I'd still buy them knowing he was probably going to scuff them next time. You could avoid the boot type which are more expensive than the shoes next time or go during the sale if you're worrying about price.

This is a good website about children's foothealth and how to fit shoes.

[hannahsaunt]

The outer shoe is sturdy but it's the inner area that moulds to the shape of the foot and could cause problems. I wouldn't wear second hand shoes so certainly wouldn't put my children into second hand shoes. (Clothes are a different matter altogether).

[PrammyMammy]

My family were poor when i was growing up. We wore cheap and 2nd hand shoes till the soles wore through.
But with ebay and charity shops selling good condition and branded items i think you can get away with it more these days. Some look like they have never been worn, and lots have been worn once, so no where near moulded.
DS got some clarkes vouchers for his 1st birthday, so once he was walking we got him some shoes. Only the next day he crawled the length of my grans garden path the shoes looked about 5 years old after that. Now we get 2nd hand and cheap ones.

[PrammyMammy]

Clarks have brilliant sales too btw. You could wait and buy a few pairs when that is on, sometimes they are 5 and ten pounds.

[MillyMollyMoo]

The Uk is the only country that fall for this fitted shoe nonsense, everywhere else in europe you get an idea, try the shoes on and if they feel right off you.
I do not seriously believe that the saturday girl at clarkes who works 8 hours a week in a shoe shop has more knowledge than anyone of us, indeed when as a student I worked in mothercare i'd regularly get sent over to clarkes to help out.
Having said all that I put a £45 pair of shoes my DD had worn for three weeks on ebay and couldn't get a fiver for them so the worry/fear factor must be very deeply entrenched.

[curiositykilled]

millmollymoo - I don't think it's nonsense Children's feet bear their entire weight and their bones are still flexible and growing. It seems perfectly logical to assume that spending a lot of time wearing poorly fitting shoes would affect the shape of their feet like what happens with foot-binding e.t.c.

The fascination with clarks shoes is nothing to do with the genuine need to have correctly fitting shoes for your DCs.

[AddictedtoCrunchies]

Could you buy trainers for him to wear to nursery and keeps his shoes for other times? Just a suggestion as that's what I do..

[RubberDuck]

Firawla: no, but it really is fairly easy to measure and fit your own child's shoes.

There's a series of videos at the Startrite site explaining how to measure and fit - of course, so that you'll use their postal service, but you don't have to shop there once you know how to fit

I measure for length using a Startrite guide I bought, convert the mm to a shoe size then use that as a starting point in the shop. Different shoe manufacturers and style fit differently anyway so the measurement isn't gospel.

[Blondeshavemorefun]

i wouldnt buy 2nd hand shoes as the previous owners feet would have molded them

but

might be worth buying cheap trainers for playing outside on bikes etc

our school makes children come to school in trainers, change into shoes, then at playtime change back into trainers

then they can run about, play games, kick football etc and not scuff shoes