To think this is a bit suspect

[jarhead123]

I’m on a local mum page and someone has posted today slagging off Clarks saying to look at the state of her sons shoes after only having them 5 days. 5 days?! They look more like 5 YEARS old!! Can’t help but feel they’re either older than she says or that he has massively mistreated them. He is 7.

AIBU to think she is pulling a fast one?!

They are not 5 days from shop bought haha. Perhaps 5 days from second hand bought but 100% not new shoes

Scooter/bike toe scuffs, soaked in rain/puddles/wee - possible but hardly Clarks fault.

No way they're only 5 days old - you can see by the amount of crap and fluff stuck to the velcro.

There’s not a chance they’re only five days old - but if they really are then her child is very hard on shoes and she needs to buy something more hardwearing, it can’t have come as a surprise to her!

The inside doesn't look worn at all, so yep I can believe it.

Wtf is her kid doing all day for them to look like that after five days??

I smell a rat!

Look at the Clark's name inside the shoes- that part does look as new. After seeing what my child can do to a pair of shoes in only a week, I wouldn't be surprised if she's telling the truth!

paquita what brand would you say are the hardest wearing, and easily available in shops? I buy Clarks because that's what I had as a child, and they're the only shoes I've bought for DD that last longer than a week or 2 without getting holes!

The insides look brand new so I'd say they definitely could be. They're wrecked from misuse though so not Clark's fault. I find Clark's shoes really rubbish though. I get Asda's with the rubber that comes right over the front and they survive whatever crap my kids put them through.

I can easily believe it and they look new enough to me going to the logo on the insole which isn't faded at all.

Some kids are really hard on their shoes, DS can easily trash a pair of Clarks within a couple of weeks. His record is one day, came out of school wearing his PE shoes after managing to rip the entire sole off one of his new shoes.

I buy him really solid Start-rite ones with a huge rubber bumper on the front, I buy in-store rather than online so that I can go into the shop to feel how hard the shoes are before choosing a pair.

They just look dirty. A good clean up, putting the velcro properly would change the look from super scruffy to not so much.

They look like he played with 100% leather shoes in puddles. That doesn’t work, the leather absorbs the water and distorts.

I can believe it. They're from the current range and, one day after washing and polishing my son's shoes, he went running round the muddy field. You'd never have known they were clean the day before. Plus they shove their feet in and out barely using the fastenings. They get chucked in and out of bags and cupboards, pulled at during assembly and pick up carpet fluff and all sorts on the Velcro.

The kids scrape and clatter around tarmac playgrounds getting scuffs and all sorts.

I ttjink they need a damn good clean and some shoe polish and if they still didn't look great, then and only then would I complain.

You don't know what he's been doing, bike, puddles, mud, scooter, football. All could knacjer them, but it's not thr manufactuers fault.

The last pair of Clark's shoes we bought, the velcro definitely looked like that inside of a week, and it had started to peel away from the closures.

My DS isn't particularly hard on shoes, either.

I'd say she's pulling a fast one - my two were always hard on shoes but it would take a good couple of months for them to look like that

DD went through the soles of her Clark’s shoes in her first week of P1 term so I can quite believe it.

They just need a clean.

They look new to me based on the writing inside. They’ve just been worn, hard for a week. You can make them filthy in a day if you try!

chrohnically my eldest DSwas horrendous with shoes- I always found Startrite harder wearing ( my DS3 had Startrite last year and they still looked good enough to donate after a year's wear, honestly). and, if you can find in the sales, Geox or Rocosta are brilliant.

I can believe it. DS Clarks shoes looked like that after a few weeks.

I believe her.

There was new article on Clarks recently and the shoddy state of their shoes. There is only one type i buy now. The rest are too much plastic poorly put together and nothing like the shoes that they used to sell.

Haha, I’m in your group and saw this earlier. I thought the same. My sons still look perfect from September. I’d be interested to know if they managed to get a refund!

I can believe that. If caught in a huge downpour/jumped in puddles and the kid plays hard in the playground then I could believe that would happen in 5 days. My kids had Clarks shoes and they scuffed on the very first day with fairly light play in a playground. The leather was way less resilient than the leather on my own shoes.

Clarks shoes aren’t great though, Startrite last until they grow out of them, Clarks wear out.

Clark’s Nate maze? My son has the same shoes look awful after two weeks

I bought a pair of expensive shoes for my son starting P1 and they were like this within a month (not a week but a month is still pretty short timeframe) so I can kind of believe it.

He only gets George school shoes now and they don't have a mark on them after 4 months.

DS has Clarkes and all except one pair have lasted until he's outgrown them.

Supermarket shoes on the other hand, are wrecked within two weeks. We have tried them, they were definitely a false economy.