Patent or Leather Shoes for School

[BitOfAKerfuffle]

DD starting school....very rough on shoes always has the toes scuffed on them in no time
Am i better with black patent or black leather ?

my thought process was that if she scuffs the black leather i can polish them but if she scuffs the patent what can i do about it ?

Anyone more experienced in this school shoe business than me !?

I always bought plain black leather and plenty of polish for the toes.

Patent looks better for a lot longer IME. DD1 is going into yr7 and DD2 into year 3 so 10 years of school shoe experience talking!

Patent will flake off leaving the usually grey lining visible so look pretty awful. My three have always worn leather which we polish with proper stuff in tins and a brush. They always come up looking great again despite being pretty battered. My oldest had one pair of patent shoes for best and hated the squeak they made when they rubbed together so refused to wear them!

I have always bought patent for dd (9) because she wrecks shoes. Patent always looks good for far, far longer and has never flaked off the ones I've bought.

Our school specifically says black leather NOT patent. No bows or extra decoration either (though think we got away with a punch hole butterfly once)! She’s more likely to grow out of them before she wears them out.

I've found patent lasts longer. As long as they're decent quality like clarks- the cheap patent ones we've had tend to peel once they've been scuffed. I also got some repair stuff from clarks but don't think I've ever used it, any marks just polished out.

Looks like patent is winning at the minute
Im specifically looking at startrite shoes for either the patent or the leather...i've picked the shoes we want but they do it in both patent and normal black leather so that has thrown me !

We bought from Clark's, kickers, start right. Best ones we ever had were DM Maccy/Tully.
My daughter scuffed and ruined shoes within days.
DMs always lasted the year and never had to be worn in!
Highly recommend, also come in patent or Black

DM= Dr Martens

We've had plenty of black leather and black patent girls' shoes from Startrite. Despite frequent polishing of the normal ones, they've looked bad quickly whereas the black patent shoes still looked really good when she grew out of them.

Patent is far better than it used to be. DDs Clarks ones look good until she’s grown out of them, however the same style in leather looked tatty in a week and needed proper polish to fill in the holes.

We always buy patent leather and never had any problems.

Patent everytime! My exDH got my DD her last pair, plain leather (as I forgot to tell him) and she scratched them the first day. Patent ones I find dont scratch.

We bought dd a pair of clarks patent leather shoes when she was in year 4. Biggest mistake ever.
They looked lovely for all of about 5 mins.
She isn't rough, no playing football or anything like that. I think we got a term out of them before the flaking started.
Normal leather shoes all the way from now on.

I always rejected patent shoes as I presumed they would be less wearing, but we ended up with them on a 'these or nothing' purchase. I was pleasantly surprised at how well they fared and have mainly got them since.

Just worth checking uniform policy though. Some schools do 'ban' them.

Girls school shoes are flimsy and pathetic. I bought my DD Clarks patent shoes between term 5 and 6 and they actually have a hole in the front. She's not a particularly rough and tumble child. I've replaced them with Geox ones, which have always been good for my son. No more patent leather for her! Toe bumpers all the way.

I prefer Geox shoes as well but unfortunately ive got such a little tiny tot, smallest uniform i can get is aged 2-3 and it drowns her and her feet are only infant sizes still and geox don't start their school shoes to a size 8. so im stuck with very little to choose from in black school shoes !

FYI I have had success taking Clarks shoes back if they have becomes ruined i the first month of wear because they aren’t fit for purpose. DDs first pair I bought last year had the sole worn down in 3 days. The sales assistant said that as they had been worn they couldn’t take them back, I spoke with the manager who agreed with me and refunded them straight away.

Leather and a good polish. I'm not a fan of patent at all.

I found Geox were disappointingly poor quality. I'm always see them recommended on here but they didn't last DS1 the first term. Maybe I had a duff pair.

I found school shoes for my tiny footed dd at Happy Little Soles, they had some (Bobux, I think) from EU size 23.

The one time I got patent they peeled - I find the school black polish (the sort with a sponge applicator that is sold to cover scuff marks) is great on normal leather shoes.

@Scoleah I'm so glad I've popped onto this thread and read ur review re dms as we're looking to get dd dms for primary as shes ruined clarks and start rite in a matter of weeks. We're hoping dms would stand up to her playing

We buy DD, doc marten dolly shoes in patent. They are honestly fantastic quality, I donated her last pair when DD grew out of them as they showed so little wear, I could of never done that with the previous Clark’s and start rite shoes as by the end of the year they had been destroyed. My DDs are tiny, they all started school in 2-3 age clothing.

Patent is much tougher now than it was years ago so wont flake off

Carla That wasn’t my experience, which was only two years ago. Pediped patent shoes flaked within a term and got a hole in the toe eventually - we had had the same style in plain leather the year before and they lasted much longer and no hole.