School uniform shopping for older boys is just horrendous!

[confusedofengland]

Just got back from shopping with DSes aged 13, 11 & 8 for school shoes, bags & shirts. It was so difficult & expensive!

DS1 has size 9 feet & is about 175+cm. We managed to get him shoes in Clarks outlet but they were £45 😳 I just hope his feet don't grow again, as he has gained 2 sizes over summer! As for shirts- plain white, short-sleeved- I went to 3 physical shops & exhausted online options before finally nabbing the last 2 packs of age 15-16 in Asda!

Ds2 (11) has uniform already, passed down from his brother & friends. His shoes were a real challenge! He takes a tiny size 3 & is narrower than an E in Clarks- which they do not cater for, but they advise putting insoles in. If we are happy to do that, he also needs slip-on shoes, preferably without velcro. I'd be happy with elastic in the place of laces. They had not one pair of shoes like this. Two more shops later & we are finally happy.

Ds3 was fairly straightforward to cater for (for now!) but he is taller than DS1 at the same age, so I can foresee future problems!

And all in all, I am about £150 poorer!

l remember trying to find ds some 26 “ waist trousers with 36” leg😩

Found something like them in Asda

You have to time it exactly right - buying too soon and you could get the size completely wrong, especially with shoes. I wouldn't get them much earlier than a week before the start of term.

I feel your pain. Just been out today weird DS 14 and 12 for shoes at £80 each and still got 4 pairs of sports shoes to buy 😬. it was more relaxed than when they were little though (we were in the mens section of Clark's and the Children's bit was bedlam!). Also they obviously don't want to go fully kitted out in the obligatory Smiggle now so it was a quick and easy dash to WHSmith. Then a nice Nando lunch so it was quite civilised really!

Its a nightmare yes.

Of course the clothes are all sweatshop stuff from countries where average heights and weights are completely different to the UK.

I have 2 dds and have had no end of trouble. Try getting shirts to fit over boobs that don't completely swamp your child.

Or trousers that don't make you look like you are wearing nappies as they the range goes from age 2-16 witg no difference in the design at all for having hit puberty.

Some.of the boys in dd1s class at primary school were 6 ft by yr 6. Expecting them to fit into uniform is a joke

If a boy in Y6 really was 6ft their parents’ focus should be on more than school uniform since it is off the growth charts, even if they were completing puberty.

Why don't you buy mens shoes ? I work in next and mens brogues start from much less than £45!

*with, not weird!

DS is now out of uniform. However, for the last couple of years, he's worn M&S extra length trouser and shirts. I think they go up to age 16-17. Since Y10 he's been well over 6ft and a size 10 or 11 shoe, but he has a swimmers body e.g. well built on top, but slim. His school shoes came from Sports Direct, usually the Kangol and they lasted the entire school year. Even with him playing football at lunchtimes. TBH, we have had more trouble finding him jeans that fit for him to wear in 6th form!

And there is VAT on school clothes and VAT on shoes that are for children. It isn't right that my adult DD still doesn't pay VAT on shoes but my DS me has to pay vat since he was 10.

Also school trouser etc have never been any good, had to buy suit ones. This year was pleased with the ones from Next

I get these lock laces for my DS who’s autistic with a heavy dash of dyspraxia.

www.amazon.co.uk/Lock-Laces-Elastic-Shoelaces-48-Inch/dp/B007DLVLDY/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?adgrpid=60219257460&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIubz_4KDv-QIVAbTtCh1cXwA7EAAYASAAEgLGCPD_BwE&hvadid=296028443723&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1006622&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=12831965805517357751&hvtargid=kwd-127120674&hydadcr=13282_1748158&keywords=lock+laces&qid=1661886265&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&smid=ANAC0RUJVMBH7&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzM0dTT1NHSDJRVTk1JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwOTE1MzQ5MTNMWEkxQVk5VEEwUiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMTc2NDA1M0pTRzBZM01SSzNVWSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

Sorry for the massive link. It means he can wear any lace up shoes or trainers.

I hadn't thought of that for some reason, but I will do next time, thanks.

These look great but unfortunately school would not accept them. Hopefully we have found a solution with loafers & velcro trainers for PE.

Ds2 is also autistic & has inattentive ADHD. Tbh it's a very stressful time anyway, with him starting senior school & his build (very skinny, to the point that he has been investigated for it but nothing came of it, and he eats like a horse!) & coordination difficulties make uniform so hard, which adds to the stress. He can't do a tie either, so I'm fretting about what he'll do on PE days 😬

My ds has dyspraxia and I spent £60 on a pair of rhino shoes and still have to replace the laces for elastic ones 🥹🥹🥲🥲 to be fair he got a year out of the last pair, but Jaysus man, stop scuffing ye shoes lad

I usually bought clothes ready to grow into in the size two above the current size, so 10, 12, 14, but DS fit the age 12 for three years so I was thinking a 14 would do him to finish school in. No, should have got an age 16 ahead of time! He went into an age 14 in year 10, then I struggled to find uniform in an age 16 at the last minute for year 11.

For those with skinny feet, Geox cater for narrower fittings better than Clarkes. My ds has really skinny feet with hardly any fat on them & I always buy GEOX.

Marks and Sparks do accessible uniform online for those with SEND and coordination difficulties.

I have to get DS1's trousers taken in around the waist as he's so slim. We buy the ones with the adjustable waist but they just balloon out around his bum and look ridiculous if we don't get them taken in.

Luckily he grows pretty slowly so far. Going into y9 and he's still in the 10-11 shirts and 28" blazer we bought for Y7.

DS2 will cost me a fortune I think as he grows like a weed. Already the same height as his brother and much heavier, plus his feet are bigger than mine already and he's only 10.

Yep, I had to buy size 6 school shoes for my 11 year old, spent hours looking for something that was velcro but didn't look like velcro (dyspraxia), met really strict school uniform requirements, would survive walking in 4 miles a day and came in width fittings for really wide feet. Next had the only style that worked. What is really ridiculous is football boots. They are all so narrow we had to buy eye wateringly expensive retro ones in size 6 when he was 10. Sometimes fashion is just stupid.

M&S extra long trousers might solve this so you can get size down for the waist. This works well for DS2&3.

I was told on here that Adidas are wider for football boots so I got those and in half a size bigger than trainers. DS actually has narrow feet but can't cope with squashed toes!

My ds wears H&M black trousers think they seem best for skinny tall teenagers . He wears black old school vans. Think his feet have stopped growing at a 9. M&S for shirts and black jumpers I buy very early for him to get the sizes . My other son is 5 and is tiny luckily I only needed a school bag as his old uniform still fits and looks fine and his feet haven't grown in 2 years!

I went earlier in the holidays for DS, but his feet seem to have settled growth wise. They do up to size 10 in Clarks, and he’s a size 10. You have to get in early though because they sell out quick, and they carry less stock for the bigger sizes, presumably so parents will have to spend more money on the adult range. Same with shirts, I got some 15-16 shirts in Asda. Thankfully the rest of his old stuff still fits. I’m hoping his current growth phase has abated for a while.

I sympathize. Lady year my son was in Year 11. He has very long legs but shorter body. Inside leg of 31 inches. He was 16 but had to have M&S adult black work trousers in longer leg. Had to use school uniform shop for very expensive polo shirts and sweatshirts with logos on. I did better with school shoes. Shoes I got from Sports Direct, Karimore black with Velcro and they lasted the whole year still looking smart and not scuffed.

The last few years we haven't been able to get the extra long leg ones in M&S in his size. He will only wear the super skinny leg ones (which look like normal straight leg trousers on him) as anything else is apparently too 'flappy'. We tried extra long leg slim fit from some other shops but they were way too wide everywhere.

This year I managed to get the long leg ones, but they will still need taking in quite a lot. He needs age 12 for length but he would need age 8 or even smaller for waist.

It's a nightmare. I'm sick of Clarkes, we went to M&S mens shoes for ds12 because we didn't want to queue for an hour with all the 5 year old to find out his size and then wait for them to tell me they had nothing in his size anyway. M&S all out on the shelf to try on!