Girls' shoes

i don't have a boy that age but i think:
M&Co
New Look
BHS
all have ranges aimed at girls age 10-14, but not a boys equivalent.

as an aside - i bought DS's last pair of boots in our local independent shoe shop. they were reduced to £15 (from £45) and they had only sold 1 pair full price because they were unisex. pale tan with some darker patches and a wee tree/flower detail on the strap which had pink, red and orange spots on it. apparently the girls all rejected them for being tan and the boys all rejected them because of the pink dots...

the reality is that (mistakes aside) shops will only sell what they can make money on, and i have struggled on both sides - DD hated pink and skirts when she was younger, DS loves bright colours like yellow, orange and pink. shops in general do not cater for children of either sex who don't "fit the mould".

I have not noticed a difference between the number of shops selling to boys and girls of 12 years. What extra shops sell to girls?

I had a girl, then six years later, I had a boy. With the girl, I was always irritated that she grew out of shoes before they were anything like worn out. With the boy I was irritated that he wore them out before they were anything like grown out of. Sigh.

Other thoughts - why isn't there a male version of the sundress? Boys tend to wear shorts and T-shirts, and get very hot and sweaty around the waistline. And while obviously girls also wear shorts and T-shirts, they also have the option of the much cooler sundress with its unrestricted airflow. And why is it so hard to find clothes for lads aged 12 - 15 (ie too old for kids' clothes shops, but not yet full-grown?) Girls have an endless supply of shops selling to this age group.

Dd is hypermobile. None of the girls shoes in Clarks support her enough so I've had to buy her boys shoes. It's an absolute fucking disgrace.

It makes me very sad when I see girls in playgrounds and parks who don't have functional practical footwear like my DS has. It so clearly magnifies any biological differences which there may be (?) and leads to more boys climbing running etc. I don't havevrhe issue as I have a DS but I've noticed that while some girls have similar footwear to their Mums some have flimsy sandals but there Mums have sensible footwear.

I would support the campaign for girls and boys to have "activewear" shoes.

I have a similar problem with the practicality of clothes. Boys trousers for toddlers in certain shops all come with reinforced knees. Girls, oh no they won't be running about falling over too, obviously.

Argghhh..... they don't actually need to 'design anything suitable for the girls range - they just need to stop branding everything by gender. Or if they must, emboss a flower motif on something like these ?

That is SO utterly ridiculous. They could just take the 'grippa' styles and make them PINK, FFS.

Not that I'd buy them [anti-pink emoticon]

They 'have not been able to design anything for the girls range to protect from scuffing'????

What the actual fuck?

They might as well say. 'We have not been able to design anything comfortable' or 'We have not been able to design anything waterproof'

Surely scuff proof is fundamental.

I am boggled.

Adagoo, for some reason I find that response hilarious. They cannot invent a girl's shoe that does not scuff? Is it some kind of scientific and technological problem that cannot be overcome, because girls' feet are so different from boys' feet that we may as well be talking about the difference between providing shoes for horses and kangaroos? How bizarre.

I spend a fortune on shoes as I don't like clarks at all. They always tell me that dd1 is an F fitting and the shoes are like boats on her. She is an E fitting and clarks don't tend to have these in stock so they always try and fob us off with an F.

Have been buying Angulus or Bisgaard for her and although eye wateringly expensive they last for ages and fit her really well. I spend more on her shoes than I would on a pair for me.

I am really beyond caring about the actual appearance of the shoes. I would let DD wear diamante encrusted candy pink shoes if they actually fit and supported her feet. She has an irregular width fitting (G) and so can only wear shoes from shops that have a range of width fittings. The Clarks girls shoes for older girls simply do not support the feet. They are mostly ballerina style or very soft leather - apparently loads of young girls now have feet problems (which lead to joint problems) because of ballerina style shoes and ugg boots. DD has never worn either (although she has had soft girls' boots), but now she is too big for startrite sandals she has no option but to wear boys' shoes or end up with all manner of problems because of this rolling foot.

Sorry, getting a bit ranty, but I have been through this in so many shoes shops and I do not understand how places like Clarks can sell shoes like this to children (and older girls feet are still growing - they need support just like younger girls), when they do not support the foot:

www.clarks.co.uk/find/keyword-is-red/product-is-20342990

We did get a pair of shoes like this, and took them into a traditional shoe shop; they could not believe the complete lack of support in the shoes. I returned them to Clarks and DD is in boys shoes for the rest of the summer. It seems the black Clarks school shoes for older girls had the same issue:

www.clarks.co.uk/find/enduses-is-school/department-is-girls/product-is-20343004

The traditional shop are reserving me a girls pair that totally enclose and support the foot from the autumn range when it comes in:

www.startriteshoes.com/girls/school-shoes/mercury

I absolutely agree re. Clarks girls shoes, and the madness of gender separating them. Its also quite hard getting the staff in shoe shops round here to sell you the boys shoes for a girl. We went in to buy dd trainers recently, and asked to see any styles that they had in dd's size, only constraints being no pink (dd won't wear pink) and nothing mainly white (my rule as they get filthy). Despite specifically saying that dd would be happy with boys styles, we were brought only the one girls' style to choose from. As it happens, it fitted and was fine (navy with a bit of a pattern), but surely the shoe shop owner was potentially turning away custom if it hadn't suited.

I'd agree though that outdoor shops are a good place to look, dd wore hiking boots for school through most of the winter, especially good for the cold snowy weather, and has outdoor style sandals now.

Grimma, I like your idea of suggesting to Clarks that they degender their ranges and simply have 'activewear' - perhaps we should write en masse?

Grimma I totally agree. It was a real revelation when I realised that we weren't restricted to just one area of the shop. Nowadays DD (6) walks straight to the boys section and starts browsing and gives shop assistants waving pink and glittery monstrosities at her very short shrift.

I must be lucky in that my DD is entirely happy with the concept that while boys are pretty much limited to 'boys' stuff, she can choose from the whole range. (clothes as well as shoes).

Try to foster this attitude, it really does help!

I buy Converse, shoes from outdoor type shops like Regatta and Mountain Warehouse and shoes from the boys range at Clarks (DD has blue trainers and green sandals this summer, both of which she loves). We have also found some lovely shoes at places like T K Maxx and outlet villages.

This type of sandal is usually the one we go for:
here

but I regularly check here to make sure I get them cheaper. I have my eye on those purple trainers for DD atm.

MY EYES!!!!!!!!!!!!

They didn't have those buggers in our local shop but I suspect I might have vetoed on grounds of outrageous luridness

You see I would go for this sort of thing but DD knows which is the girls section and wants something the girls at nursery will approve of. You know what they're like. It's such a shame.

I just took a quick look at the Clarkes website - there are plenty of 'boys' sandals which would look fine on a girl - maybe someone should tell their marketing dept to stop selling by gender but to label them 'activewear' or suchlike?

And surely these would look better on a girl than a boy...

It is hard- regarding the pink thing as you can choose what you want for your own DD (obviously I choose to have some girly things!) but not what others buy. I have family who I know are going to throw Disney Princess tat at her as soon as they can, their own DDs are quite the princesses! This same family thinks I am being no fun and silly for my views... what can you do?

Thanks for all these shoe links, lots to think about and thanks OP for starting this interesting thread!

Girls shoes are terrible - they are simply too soft and unsupportive. DD's foot is rolling as a consequence. The only girls shoes that actual keep the foot upright are startrite classic sandals, but they have stopped making them in larger sizes. As a consequence DD is now only wearing boys shoes (she is 10) and is happy to do so.