Hand me down shoes?

[cherub59]

Good reuse of ridiculously priced kids shoes or an evil that will forever deform your Childs foot if they don't wear properly fitted virgin shoes.... Bit of a debate going on in this house.

Ds2 wearing hand me down crocs/wellies etc but not every day school shoes etc as he has wider feet than ds1.

What do you do?

Never, I know it's ridiculous and it probably makes no difference at all, but they have to have new shoes and they have to have clarks for every day wear. I'm neurotic I know, DH thinks I'm ridiculous.

We hand down wellies and party shoes. Would hand down crocs if we had them. Would hand down anything that doesn't get worn everyday and anything that isn't 'fitted'. Wellies and crocs don't get molded to the shape of a person's foot like your everyday shoes.

For school/everyday shoes I buy new for each child, would have cheap new over used expensive, unless the used ones were in very good condition and I was sure they fitted well.

Ds1 is an H fitting and ds2 is a narrow F, so wellies only in this house!

Mine often have second hand wellies or shoes for garden play.

I wouldn't do it for every day wear, but for short bursts amounts of time then I don't have a problem with it. The are always bare foot in the house and in the garden so I reckon their feet have plenty of room to grow.

Would always hand down any shoes that aren't school shoes as they are usually fit for the bin when they are replaced

.....meant to say often barefoot in the garden, I don't send them out in the mud without shoes.

School shoes are rarely in a state to be handed down in this house, TBH (plus older DS and younger DD means she would be teased relentlessly if we did try....)

However, most other shoes (trainers, crocs, beach shoes, wellies) do get handed down if not entirely destroyed - and our fabulous shoe shop will happily check the fitting on hand-me-downs (trainers, mostly) for me (and to date have always confirmed that they are fine).

Ds has hand-me-down polo trainers. But, honestly, I regret it and he never wears them.

Just realized I seem to have posted the thread twice!

My little ones are only 3 and 2 so as their feet grow quite quickly we havent reallayas got to the point of shoes being utterly destroyed - just a bit scuffed. I have however always thout propernshoes mould to your foot so would be bad for your feet. Dh on the other had thinks it is a huge waste of money.

Ironically it was me that drew the line when dh wanted to buy ds2 a pair of trainers that were £45!!!! ridiculous!!!!!

I never used to do second hand shoes at all.

However my friend used to own his own shoe shop and has shown me how to ensure shoes are fitted correctly and what to look out for. It's not rocket science and as a result i now will make use of most shoes that are second hand as long as the soles aren't worn, aren't moulded shape wise inside and they fit really well. The shoes we have been handed are ones that the origional owner wore very little because the seasons changed/they were disliked/feet grew too quickly/they were just a spare pair.

I have used hand me down shoes. With ds 1 we were better off and bought clarks first shoes etc. Did check ds 2 foot width and hurrah a wide foot like his brother and his cousin. So yes hand me downs for moment.
However ds1s school shoes and trainers get wrecked so won't be fit for anything but bin. However Tescos all the way now as poorer these days.

Both DDs have same narrow feet (E fitting). I hand down any shoes, boots, trainers that are in good condition. I have always bought new school shoes as they spend so much time in these.

DD1 has worn hand-me-down wellies, crocs and trainers from her cousins. But she always has one pair of 'proper' shoes that she wears for preschool and everyday wear.

I've worn crocs post a foot operation and can confirm that they very much do mould to your foot shape. Your decision whether it matters to you but though people who re-use them might want to know

I have handed down everything that was fit to wear.

We do hand me down for football shoes (I have two boys) and wellies, but not school shoes. They are too worn by the time they grow out of them. I get their school shoes from M&S, as Clarks are very expensive and I find that M&S are very good, if you take them to the shop and make sure they fit properly.

Tesco does good trainers, DS1 has had his since beginning of winter and wears them every weekend, and they still look in good condition.

My DS wears hand-down shoes (and everything else for that matter) - wish I could find the really good thread on Mumsnet a few years ago which showed how Clarks/Start Rite etc have such strong marketing influence that the UK is one of the few countries that is so 'neurotic' about childrens' shoes.

I happily buy shoes for myself from charity shops .