Which shoes for secondary?

[Fullofpudding]

My son is finding it impossible to tie his own laces (I suspect there's some thing behind this) However he is keen to wear grown up shoes for secondary. We'll keep practicing over the summer but in the meantime which one of these shoes do you reckon are more grown up? He said he doesn't want to be the kid who wears Velcro at secondary! He's tried some slip ons but finds them hard to get on as he has very wide feet.

Thanks MN

The ones on the left.

Posted too soon. Trousers will cover most of the velcro on those, the others have a lot of velcro.

Out of the two I would say the pair with one strap. However my ds can't tie shoelaces, we did try self tying ones, but it wasn't overly successful. Now we make sure that they are tied before school and he just slips them on and off for me. Not great, but when he started velcro was on the No list for shoes.

Me should be PE.

left. Have you tried teaching him the bunny ears method of tying shoes? we had been trying the traditional method. A woman in clarks showed us and my son found it much easier.

My eldest always struggled with shoelaces - he ended up with a diagnosis of dyspraxia. May be worth looking at if it's not just laces - secondary is much harder than primary for dyspraxic children.

Replace normal laces with elastic laces?
Ds wore ones like the 3 velcro strap ones.

Mine struggled with laces, so we bought elastic laces (search on ebay), they look like normal laces but you leave them tied and treat the shoe like a slip on.

Left

have you seen these laces

or

and these

The ones on the left ...but if it helps my son wears shoes with Velcro and he's going into year 10. He cannot tolerate shoes that aren't soft and is a H width foot so choice is very limited and the ones that are comfy have velcro.

A few times (and he is a kid who is generally picked on) someone has said your shoes have velcro and he's said um, yeah they do. And that's been it. Trousers cover a lot!

I've got the ones on the left for DS as basically the only shoes I could find in a big enough size with velcro that fulfil the school uniform requirements. Ds has dypraxia and it takes him quite a while to tie laces and he can only tie certain laces, so rather than risk constant uniform violations I decided to go with velcro. In his case kids are far more likely to mock his handwriting than notice his shoes, so not worried about them.

I'd go for 3 strips of velcro for a better quality fit. DS is going into secondary with two strips of velcro as his shoes bought at Easter are still a good fit and condition. (Plus dyspraxia/ ASD issues)

His feet are small for age, and will barely be found under his voluminous trousers. He's always refused to wear trousers until now but accepts the inevitable under condition that they are as baggy on the leg as possible... he's more likely to have image concious bullies homing in on the fact that his school uniform has the fit of a potato sack than for velcro, but hey, growing room probably grown out of by Easter anyway

Id say the left as trousers will likely cover the top velcro strap and not be noticed. But the elastic laces sound like they need investigation.

Slip on football boots are luckily all the rage.

So the only issue left to solve is pe trainers that are not obviously velcro as with shorts will be noticeable.

I'm going to say it, don't send him in with velcro, secondary school is brutal as it is. Go for slip ons or as PP suggested get something along the lines of kickers and replace with elasticated laces.

The ones with the single velcro.
These are my son to be Y9 boy's shoes. Velcro! (Yes, they desperatly need polishing).
Clarks in the sale around Easter time. I think the might be from the mens department, so worth looking if he has "adult" size feet ie 6 or above.
My youngest is way off that size!

Ds struggled with laces with flat laces, but managed it straight away with round laces. Or possibly the other way round! Bit it might be worth trying different laces. He was about 9.

Buy elastic laces and lace up shoes.

www.amazon.co.uk/Sneakers-Magnetic-Adjustable-Universal-Shoelaces-Replacements-Black/dp/B09M81HXRM/ref=asc_df_B09M81HXRM/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=570268545330&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17022319337850629219&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046891&hvtargid=pla-1607721482335&psc=1

We got Nike Airforce 1s and the laces above. Ds1 is suspected adhd and dyspraxic and starting y7.

Thanks everyone. He does have elastic laces for his trainers so wondered about getting him those laces for shoes too. Saying that the ones with the single Velcro he said are very comfortable and that's a rarity in this house!

My oldest son learned the usual way of tying them (my husband showed him) and although I tie my own that way I'm not very good at doing this in a mirror way so with DS2 I showed him the bunny ears method which a PP also recommended. He picked this up really quickly (lots of videos on you tube) so maybe try that.

But I also meant to say just go with those single strap ones!

I've tried the bunny ears
He currently has laces like this but the ones in the link above look nicer.