Do children's shoe designers live in cloud cuckoo land?

[Tigermoth]

Imagine for a minute that you are a children's shoe designer. Dark leather shoes and boots for the winter, you've got all that pretty much all sewn up. For the warmer months, however, your mind and reality apparently part company.

Your market: Primary school children.

Your brief: To design trainers that don't cost an arm and a leg, last long enough for the child to grow out of them, can cope with the rigours of ordinary playground activity and are a comfortable on warm days, with adequate protection from summer rain, and a good fit.
They don't have to have the latest logo either.

Surely not that impossible, given all the materials and technical wizardry that goes into designing the vast range trainers for adults?

So what do you come up with? My perusal around 10 (count them) shoe shops ranging from good old Clarkes to the dreaded JR Sports threw up the following offerings from you shoe desgners:

You pick white as your base colour. Especially white soles. Ignoring the fact that puddles and mud feature heavily in any English summer. You make the majority of the trainers with an under-reinforced toe area. After all, it's only a minority of children who ever kick a ball, ride a bike, or accidently scuff their trainers, isn't it? You pick suede, suede-a-like and lycra-like fabrics rather than tough, easy-to-clean leather. After all, most parents love the excuse to take their child shopping for new trainers every eight weeks, don't they?

Don't these shoe designers and manufactureres have children? Is it too much to expect a pair of trainers to come in at well under £30.00, last at least 4 months and still look reasonable? All my son really wants is a pair of trainers to run around in. He's not trying to make a fashion statement. I have hunted down the odd pair that fit the above criteria, but they are few and far between. Asking shoe shop assistants over this weekend for trainers, size 1 any colour but white met with the reoccuring answer: "sorry we only have white ones left, the darker coloured ones go really quickly" Am I missing something here?

Before anyone suggests I go to Adams, Mothercare etc for off the peg trainers, my son has a slightly wider foot than average, so these ones, I find, are usually too narrow. Anyway, I like the reassuring presence of a trained shoe shop assistant to hand, even when my son is trying on the dismal choice of trainers that we inevitably get presented with.

Am I alone in this? Is this a problem for anyone else?

Don't you find it amazing that there aren't more children's shoe manufacturers and retailers like Clarkes and Startrite? Surely the demand is there. IMO C and S could do with some direct competition to gee them up.

What I find amazing is that these shoe shops have their back to school ranges in already. They've only just broken up ffs! I once went into Clarks in July to buy dd some sandals (strange, I know, it being summer and all!) and they didn't have any in her size. All they had was black school shoes. Surely even allowing for their room for growth they're not going to get much wear out of them. I wrote to complain and they said that they took the extra time/growth into account. We don't even bother going to Clarks now as dd has narrow feet (like me) and it's murder trying to find somewhere that has any in her size let alone ones that she likes! It's Russell & Bromley for us, not perfect but at least they have a selection.

Bossanova, I had the same thing in Clark's last summer...went in to try and get sandals for ds1 and was told "oh, sorry..we've only got shoes/boots ready for 'back to school' in September."
Presumably, you have to try and anticipate your child's shoe size and buy sandals the previous December.

I have had some really nice, traditional (eg., T-bar closed toe sandals; brown suede boots) for ds1 from Vertbaudet..but sizing can be iffy if your child doesn't have average feet as they don't do different widths (ds1 has a wide foot and I have picked "rounded" sort of styles and been fine though).

Just hate the way you go into Clarks, get your child's feet measured, then hope they have more than one pair to choose from. I don't go in an adult shoe shop and say "what have you got to fit me?" I say "I would like THOSE, in a 6, please!"

oh god. my daughter starts nursery in sept, and alto she doesnt have to wear school schools, i want her to have a decent pair of hard wearing shoes to withstand her playground activities. should i start looking now? i know that by the end of auguest all the sensible shoes will be gone. i remember trying to get her 1st shoes, she had dinky feet (size 2), the only shoes clarkes had in her size were very pale pink, they were a night mare to keep clean and respectable looking, they did last tho.

I have to give Strat-rite's customer service section a big thumbs up. I bought a pair of pearlised pink leather sandals and recommended polish, needless to say despite only weraing them to go to town they were trashed in 3 weeks. I got a full refund and very nice email apology with no quibbles. Have to admit that I do try and guess DD's size in advance; we've got some very nice elefanten boots in the cupboard that I bought for £15 in a sale, at current growth rate they will fit her in November, by which time the summer styles will be in.

Am I the only one that thinks Clarks shoe styles over size 8 look cheap and tarty, rather like something you'd buy in Woolworths?

I now avoid Clarks like the plague. They are supposed to be fully trained staff. When I took my daughter into the Ilford branch and they measured her feet I asked if a certain size would fit and the assistant said she wasn't sure but they could do??? I'm sure she never knew what she was talking about and just wanted commission. Barratts do just as good a job and cheaper!!! I do it myself now as different styles come up in different sizes so I check each pair individually. All the shops that expertise in fitting childrens shoes are either miles away or too expensive. I'm sure Clarks shoes are diliberately smaller than other makes so that you have to buy shoes more often!!! My daughter likes to be barefoot anyway!!!!

Wow old thread!
My dd2 needed new schoo shoes in Jan -Clarkes only had summer range in!
Also only school shoes available for a size 8 had an big heel!

I've also found it really annoying that you need to buy shoes in advance of the season, especially Clarks. Why cant they meet demand, you have to buy summer shoes/sandels and hope that they fit all summer because towards the end of the summer you have no hope of getting any. We are going on holiday beginning of April so I will need summer shoes for dd's, probably a bit earlier than I would normally buy, I'm either going to have to hope that they fit all summer, or guess at another size for late summer. Last year we went to Florida in late Sept with dd's in winter shoes as I just couldnt get any summer ones, even though I looked in August. Thankfully managed to get some in the US.

oh this old chestnut has reared its head eh?
don't get me started.
ds1 is on the verge of growing out of his size 2 trainers and lady in shop was saying once they are into size three , there are no velcro ones-just laces!as ds is only 5, nearly 6, i can see we are going to have problems.
Also did anyone see that clarkes can no longer offer odd shoes for children with differently sized feet due to them being made abroad now?
it just gets worse and worse.

Barratts do a fab range called "toezone" where you can measure child's foot on back of shoe and they do velcro.

do startrite still do odd shoes?

my sister has to have them and my poor mum used to have a nightmare getting them as it would take about 4-6 weeks for an odd pair to arrive after ordering them!