Aibu to want my son in properly fitting shoes? But how the hell do I afford them and what about wellys?

[washingonawednesday]

13 mo ds. Just started walking (v v excited) so purchased first pair of shoes. He has a wide g fitting combined with a tiny 2.5 size.

Obviously bought clarks shoes, but at £24 a pop, am slightly concerned about keeping him in these as he gets bigger- replacement pair every 3 months ish as his feet grow I suppose- eeep!

Anyway twattish ex husband has bought him crappy cheap trainers. No indication of width fitting at all and wants to know for how long he has to have 'special' shoes that have a width fitting. Don't know what to tell him. I'm not asking him to buy shoes- but don't want him to put him in cheap crap ones.

Also I want wellys but clarks don't seem to do them small enough.

General shoe confusion!!!

Don't Brantano measure and fit for kids too?

I second Clarks outlet. Much cheaper but still fitted.

I joined TAMBA (twins and multiple birth association) and got a discount card for clarks.

My SIL also 'joined' tamba and got the card although she dosnt have twins she counted her 8 children as 'multiple births' ;)

Yep, Clarks outlet all the way. I get him measured every month but we only buy new shoes maybe three times a year at most. And cheap wellies are fine, I buy him a size bigger.

YANBU to want your DC in shoes that fit properly. Particularly with a wide foot, then cheap trainers are unlikely to support / fit properly.

They do go through fits and starts in growth - mine usually go Oct - May in one pair as their feet don't grow much in the winter, and then grown two sizes in the summer so need replacing twice over.

I have finally caved in with DS now that he is at seconary and in an adult size 10 and let him choose his own shoes, whereas DD still gets dragged to our local independent shoe shop who sell Start-Rite / Clarks etc and take lots of time making sure that they fit properly

Once you know their size and width fitting then shop around or buy second hand. Toddler shoes really don't get much wear. DS1 had a fairly wide foot so his shoes were also fine for DS2 whose foot is one notch narrower and the shoes are now with DH's family in North Africa where they will do at least another 1 or 2 children.

I second the suggestion of looking for a Clarks Factory outlet as well I bought 2 pairs of childrens shoes (which my boys love) for under £30 (in total not each).

Orthopaedic, I think I will stick with him though.

DS's feet were a 4 on a scale of 1-5 (with 5 being the most severe). He now plays tennis and soccer etc and has no issues whatsoever not even the tiniest scar or limp or anything, magic as far as I am concerned.

I sometimes buy Geox because they are cute, but for trainers whatever is on sale and the same for school shoes.

I've used this company before shoes for kids and they've been excellent.

As for how long - well, DS1 is 6 and has weird feet and insoles, so he'll be having width fittings as long as we can get them. DS2 can have generic trainers at 3 yo and they fit perfectly. DD really ought to have fitted ones, but prefers quantity to quality, so her £5 purple "uggs" will do!

I am a big fan of Clarks. Yes they are expensive, but they are his only pair of shoes, along with cheap wellies, crocs, and slippers. But they last until he grows out of them. When they wear out before he grows out of them I will consider changing to cheaper brands.

The way I see it is that the whole shoe thing is very much over hyped.

I don't see people dragging themselves down the street blaming the fact their parents were too poor to buy them properly fitted Clarks shoes as a child and now they have stumps instead of feet.

And children who live in poorer countries who don't have access to a Startrite/Clarks all seem to be able to walk without deformed feet.

As long as they are roughly the right size, they'll be fine.

Highlander - see different brands suit different feet , I have on dn who also always ends up in Geox and another who could only ever get startrite to fit.

I am very cheeky. Take the kids to Clarks, get them measured.
Go home, and look on eBay.
At that age they hardly get any wear out of them, so even buying 2nd hand is like new.

Not many things 'flick my switches' as much as Clarks Shoes. I care very little about what other parents do with the DC, but for some reason the very mention of Clarks makes the steam come out of my ears. Rather than go into a Ranty McRant - I'll just C&P my last post about Crappy Clarks (from some time last year!)

To be a Clarks Shoe fitter (ie to work in the shop) takes only a one day course.

To be a 'shoe fitting expert' (you get a special badge and everything!) takes about 3 months and is based on how many shoes/customers you have fitted - not an exam/college course. They only have to have 'fitted' 50 pairs of shoes.

All you need to do to ensure that the shoes you buy your child fit well is a 6 point check - Length, growing room, width, doesnt rub the heel, doesnt slide off when walking, doesnt rub the top of the foot. This is a handy guide HERE - and its a 9 point check - better than Clarks!!

So I could go to Clarkes, pay £30 and have someone do this for me - or I could go to Asda, do it myself and pay £10.

Personally I like Brantano for cheap 'Chipmunks' shoes, but that's because I like the styles. DD is currently in a pair of Stead and Simpsons £10 school shoes that fit her perfectly, are made of leather and she has had since Sep with no issues.

I've never bought Clarks and never will - without being forced to feel guilty.

(as an aside - Clarks dont exist in the USA, at least not for kids. Is there a whole country walking round with badly fitting shoes / feet falling off because their terrible mothers went to WalMart for their school shoes? No? Thought not)

I sympathise - can cost a small fortune, but think it's worth it to support growing feet. PILs very kindly offered to DS some shoes last Easter, which was a big help at the time. Perhaps suggesting shoes instead of a gift (esp when he's too little to know what's happening) for birthdays/christmas/easter is something you could think about. Also nct nearly new sales often have good bargains - no good for us though due to DS's wide feet, as they never have anything un his size.
Really wouldn't worry about wellies - for the length of time they wear them, supermarket cheapies are fine.

Balls, that link doesn't work any more. Hold on...

Here is a 6 point checklist: 6Point

And here is a good website about fitting childrens shoes: HOWTO

How good at walking is your son? Is he walking long distances outside, instead using the pushchair?

I doubt Clarks do wellingtons that size. Two year olds, with size 6 feet, who have been sturdily walking a 2-3 kilometres a day have slight difficulty getting used to walking in inflexible, calf-height rubber.

Shoes for just walking babies are supposed to be so flexible, that an adult can scrunch them lightly in their hand! Clarks told me so!

Well I stand corrected then - thanks!

I have had DD's feet measured in Clarks but they never have the correct size to buy - or they only have the really mega expensive ones available in the shop! Have bought DD cheap trainers and shoes so must be a bad mother too! I always check that they are not too tight or that they won't fall off.

I'm not overkeen on Clarks tbh. If you like the though, see if you have any outlet shopping centres near you and go there. We have a Clarks one nearby and shoes are cheaper there and they offer fitting just like the normal shops.

For wellies, if your DS has average-width feet then it shouldn't be a problem to buy from Asda or Tesco or somewhere. I've never bought Clarks or Start Rite wellies for any of mine. I usually take their normal shoe with me to compare the sole size with the wellies and then try them on my DC and check the width and length.

Agree with the others who said to try and find an outlet store, I am very lucky to have one as part of my local shopping centre, they tend to be about 2/3 of the normal price and will still check fit etc. All my 3 measure at an F fitting but 9/10 end up in a G so I wouldn't rely on the measured size alone when buying elsewhere. I buy the oldest a pair of school shoes and a pair of trainers from Clarks, and the preschoolers one pair each. I get the gym rubbers from there too because they wear them all day inside at school, and the Clarks ones have width fittings. Slippers, wellies etc aren't fitted so I get supermarket ones. They don't necessarily need new ones every 3 months, DS1 was every 8 weeks for the first year or so, and still seems to have insane growth spurts and when he was between 6 and 7 grew 2 whole sizes in a year, whereas DS2 and DD can go anything from 4 months to a year without growing even half a size, it's bizarre. The best thing is just to keep getting them checked.

DS1 hated having his feet measured. Once the Clarks "fitter" was checking the fit of a shoe while he was waving his foot around. She told me she'd managed to check and the shoe was fine - just as it fell off. She'd been pretending to squeeze all around when he hadn't even had his heel in the shoe.

If you do want to stick with Clarks (and TBH, I've always found their shoes last for ages), if you can find shoes you like in the sale section of their website, you can order them to your local Clarks shop for free and get them to check the fit.

I have always bought my dc shoes and trainers from clarks and they have lasted them until they outgrew them rather than falling apart. They are almost 10 and 12 yrs and I will continue to do so as long as possible.

Have bought cheap trainers for ds2 a couple of times and they didn't last at all.

Until recently I did go to the outlet village though as it was so much cheaper but they are limited on ds1 size now.

For me it's not about the fitters, but the fit.

Poor ds takes after me and has wide feet and a high instep. You physically cannot ram his foot into most non-Clarks (or Startright etc) shoes.

I still can't get my weird little trotters into a lot of shoes.

I've never had any issues with Clarks (or rather when I did, they replaced the shoes there and then, no bother at all). People do often complain about them on MN but few people are going to start a thread entitled "I'm perfectly happy with Clarks shoes"

I do wonder if it differs from store to store though. Our local branch of Clarks is fine but our Russell and Bromley is dreadful.

Jenai - I have dc with extra-wide feet, and high insteps - trying on supermarket shoes is hilarious. They can barely wedge their toes into them, let alone their entire foot.

Clarks is a ridiculous expense, BUT I put away £10 a month for shoes. I take them in every 8 weeks (Though more often for DS3 who is only 12mo - the others are 13,9 and 8), to get measured.

I have a choice. I pay the £36-£42 for Clarks shoes for them - or I pay £55+ at the independant shoe shop. They are the only places that do shoes that fit my dc's feet properly. And as I was trained in shoe fitting by an independant retailer many moons ago, I trust MY fitting abilities over the staff in Clarks many badly fitted shoes that I refused to buy.

Morloth - I heard that from DS2's NHS orthotist, but with the caveat that you have to actually FIT the shoes on their feet, not just their toes. As DS2 was in the Extra-wide Piedro's - that doesn't include most supermarket shoes.

Though, I HAVE found that Airwalk trainers, sold by SportsDirect, are an extra-wide, extra high fit, and fit my 'H' width fitting, high instepped DS's very well. And they are only £16 for a pair. Which is only £2 more than Tesco's extra-narrow ones, for the larger sizes.

Airwalk trainers? I shall check them out next time I need to get ds some. I bought him a pair for £9 in the Clarks sale the other week so we're good for now.

BHS also apparently do good kids shoes in a couple of width fittings. My friend gets all her DCs shoes from there and says they're much more hardwearing than Clarks.