To not shop in Clarks?

[Smarties789]

I completely take on board what people say about your child needing to wear shoes that fit properly. And that small feet can be damaged from wearing badly fitting shoes.
But I went to 2 different Clarkes shops with my child on the same day and got 2 different measurements.
Are Asda/Tesco/Next shoes just as good? Bit concerning how they only come in one width.

It's fairly easy to learn to fit your own child's shoes - Startrite's website has a set of videos to show you how and you can buy foot gauges online. I buy from M&S (quality about as good, ime - my two dses seem to trash Clarks/Startrite very quickly) and Asda/Tesco when out of stock in M&S (not quite as good quality but apparently comfortable and at least cheap to replace when they wear out slightly more quickly than M&S).

M&S do two different widths, from memory. However, I found that while it was hard to get the right width with "proper" fitted shoes, they fit standard width off-the-shelf shoes fine!

You don't have to shop in Clarks. My two have quite difficult feet to fit. Shoe shopping used to be a nightmare and then someone recommended an independent children's show shop and they are fab.

^ shoe even!

Clarks seem to have marketed themselves as the 'social services of childrens' feet', and somehow try to pull a guilt trip on parents for not shopping there (was once told by a Clarks staff member when they had no shoes in stock for my DD that she STRONGLY advised I didn't buy from anywhere else). I personally think Clarks shoes are poor quality anyway, and do a much better job myself than a teenage Saturday assistant that did a half day's training and sees herself as a shoe fitting expert!

YANBU. I lost a bit of faith in Clarkes when the assistant wanted to sell me a pair of boots that were clearly far too wide for skeletor footed DD.
She told me they would fatten up over winter.

I go to an independent shoe shop with ds. THey do sell Clarks shoes and sometimes he has them, sometimes other brands. If they don't have the size and it is a Clarks shoe we want, then they will suggest that the Clarks shop may have them in, tell you what size/fitting to get and do a quick demo of how to check it!

I am getting so fed up with them! I just left some ranty feedback on their website, in fact.

Here's my current gripe: I went in to the store, had DS's feet measured, looked for shoes but they didn't have the ones we wanted in his size. Went home and looked on the website, made some choices which were available in his size.

But will they let me buy them? No. I have to traipse back into the shop for a personal collection with DS to 'make sure' the shoes fit. Grrr!

So either they think I'm thick and can't read the note they gave me with his size written down, or they don't trust their own measuring staff, or their shoe sizes are not manufactured to a consistent standard.

Which is it, Clarks? Please do tell us.

I stopped shopping in Clerks after one of their staff had a strop and refused to measure my (three year old at the time) son's feet because he'd had a strop at her because he was scared of the measuring thing she was trying to strap to his feet.

YANBU I'm sick of the guilt trip. We too had two different measurements on same day in same store & a third different one next day in different store (I was just testing).

Even with the measurement, they bring a selection of shoes in the 'correct' size & proceed to explain that none of them fit (a bit like m&s bras!). Last time we went in (October) we bought a pair of boots we didn't really want, mainly out of desperation. We'd been clear we didn't want the insipid pinks, patent or flashy lights. We certainly didn't want pink, flashy lighted trainers; as it was winter & these were to be worn with dresses too. She proceeded to bring precisely what we asked her not to and told dd (then 21 months) not to listen to mummy & daddy. In the end I grabbed a pair of brown boots, fitted them myself & complained to the manager about her.

Next pair were startrite from a lovely independent shop, the inside seams were so roughly sewn she got a massive blister on her toe. We took them back & had a massive row. Now we just have to work harder to make sure the shoes fit, but find some supermarket ones fine. Dunes is great if we're visiting Irish family.

Mil does catbummouth every time though & reminds me how important her feet are!

can't stand Clarks. I agree with the "self-appointed social services of childrens feet" comment.

my baby can't walk yet. Therefore, he does not need pre-walking shoes, 'cruising' (wtf?) shoes or pre-pre walker crawling creepy crawly shoes.

when he can walk he'll probably spend most of his time in a pair of wellies.

I buy from m&s
. Brilliant quality

I hate clarks! Ugly shoes with clumpy shoes in gross colours, and a pointless ticket service even when the shop is empty! If I want 'proper' measured shoes for school I go to charles clinkards. They stock clarks as well as start rite, kickers, geox etc and you can buy online. My dd can wear shoes from almost anywhere as her feet are narrow but the size does vary, usually needs bigger from cheap shops.
Last year I got her some trendy biker boots from shoezone, I was amazed she wore them to death and they stayed intact and never even let in water.

*clumpy soles!

I'm, really fed up with them. I thought I'd be Ok just buying shoes from their sale, but they were worn through within a couple of weeks. And I took them back, with the receipt only to be told that the receipt had a code for a different pair on it, which I had never bought (ones with a toy inside, so I KNOW I didn't!)

They wouldn't give me the full amount, only a voucher for some of it, and now customer service want me to send the shoes to them, so they can be 'tested in the lab' WTAF sort of lab they require to see a gaping hole in the toe is beyond me.

Patronising, cack handed BASTARDS.

Hope that is clear enough.

Fanny it's that they are not manufactured to a consistent size. AND they think we are thick (well thick enough to believe a 14yo saturday girl in a headset can measure a child's foot better than its parents can)

I had to return a pair that was supposed to be an 8, wouldn't even go ON ds's foot, and he was still a 7...in fact wearing a Clarks size 7! I took them back, they replaced them with some that were a completely different size but said the same on the label. It's shite. Then they measured his brother's feet, said they were an F but only had shoes in a G but they said 'well they're all different anyway, they'll probably fit'

It's a shocking marketing game that they have pulled off but it's backfired big time I think.

we get dd's feet measured in john Lewis and sometimes buy shoes from there but sometimes we'll go elsewhere if nowt takes our fancy. The lovely ladies in the kids shoe dept are much better at measuring dd's feet than anyone we've encountered in clarks. And if they do mind measuring her feet and us not buying anything they are much too polite to say so!

Clark's has gone significantly downhill since I were a nipper. A friend went in last summer because they had some sandals in the window she quite liked. They didn't have her size in stock so the assistant brought out some two sizes smaller.