Am I the worst mother in the world I've decided not to keep buying expensive Clarks shoes for my 2.3yr old ds?

[dandycandyjellybean]

Having had two completely different sizings on the same day from Clarks shops practically next door to each other last time I bought some, I opted for the larger measurement. I wasn't sure about the fit to be honest, felt they weren't wide enough, but was told by the '12 year old' shop assistant that they were a good fit, and so reluctantly coughed up the £40. Within a few weeks they were leaving red marks across the top of his feet and so I ended up buying him a £3 pair of trainers from Matalan that he has lived in ever since, or his slippers or wellies. (Bought a second pair of trainers a couple of weeks ago! ) Part of me feels quite deliciously rebellious, and the rest of me feels the full load of typical 'terrible mother' guilt. What d'ya reckon?

you should've taken the shoes back and kciked up a fuss.

does your ds have wide feet or normal width? i can dd1 shoes off the peg as she is a standard f fit.

dd2 has wide feet, dd3 has narrow feet (but she lives in wellies)

I have also had some 'dodgy' fittings from so called trained staff but I would be very wary of letting your DS wear trainers all the time.

I have always found Startrite much better (but sadly as expensive). I am all for cheap clothes, second hand clothes but I'm afraid I will always buy fitted shoes. My children have got trainers and wellies but they always have a pair of fitted shoes that they wear most of the time.

Just my opinion

I gave up Clarks many years ago when I forked out for enormously expensive pair and within two weeks they were scuffed to buggery, falling apart at seams etc. Took em back, but it was a pain.

We have a wonderful chain called Jonathan James around here? Cheapo and only last a short while, but you know what you're getting!

It doesn't qualify you as the worst mother in the world though......you have to try harder than that

You might find this thread interesting
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/2724/472998?stamp=080214140532

My 2 yougest dds have school shoes from asda/shoesave/wherever, I went through a guilt phase probably about the same time I got hooked on mn, went and bought clarks they did not last any longer and the girls hated them,back to chain stores for us .

I buy cheap trainers/sports shoes, but I buy school and smart shoes from an independent shoe shop, usually, as I'm not too fond of Clarks either.

Let him wear the shoes that fit him. I have been told in Clarks before that "We haven't got this in a 9.5H, he'll have to have a 10G"

Oh no he fucking won't. If I am buying shoes that don't fit, I am not paying £35 for them!

I read a survey which found that mothers who fitted their children's shoes themselves with off-the-shelf at Woolies etc did just as well at getting the right shoes (on average) as trained fitters.

Anybody any experience with Brantano?

yes we've bought shoes at Brantano and they're pretty good
i think some of the sizings come up a little bigger than you might expect

It's not difficult making sure a pair of shoes "fit' your child's feet.......is it? Am I missing something? nybody ever been a trained fitter? Is there a secret?

I am tempted to go to Brantano next time. Thing is the shoes are sometimes not seasonal. I like the look of hush puppies

Hi Cubby

I too am very dissappointed in clarks shoes not to mention service and have made several ranting posts on here on the very topic!

My DS is 2.5 and I the one thing that I spend my hard earned and not very large amount of cash on is shoes for him (we both live in charity shop clothes, same for books and toys for him).

I have had his feet measured religously every 6 -8 weeks as recommended since he started wearing shoes.

So far I;ve spent c£200 on shoes for him in the last 1.5 years - I reckon I spend that in about 10 years on me.

After the fiasco with his last pair (seam came apart and when I tried to return them clearly hardly worn it was like WWIII trying to get a refund / replacement with clarks coming out with all kinds of crap about if DS rode a scooter or kicked balls) I eventually complianed to the head office and got a voucher for £13 so had to buy his next shoes from clarsk.

Took him in and the girl measured him and siad he was 7E. I found this odd as he has always been F or G and his foot was only just out of 6.5 she said so herself.

She got someone else to "check" the fitting and I bought the shoes.

I then became paraoid that they were not in fact the right size and took DS back.

Another girl measured him as 6.5 G.

(His old shoes were 6.5F) and siad that he was too wide for his old shoes, but they still fitted lenghwise.

Right so why was I sold shoes that were narrower then?

She refunded the 7E (customer goodwill apparently) and I bought a pair of 7G

If I had the energy I would write to clarks to complain again as is just shoddy.

Sorry v longwinded but I am also tempted to buy cheapo shoes in future as what is the point of spending £30 in clarks if they don;t fit and fall apart anyway?

I got DS a pair of £5 canvas shoes last summer and they were fine.

Clarks - bollocks.

So there

I found the fitters in Clarks to be a bit hit and miss so now if they give me a different width measurement to what he usually has, I ask them to have the supervisor check the measurement. Also, I get his feet measured regularly so if he has gone up more than half a size, I also ask for the supervisor to check the width measurement.

If you want Clarks shoes but don't want to pay the money, I would go to Clarks, let them put a shoe on your DC, check it fits, then say you will get them another day. Buy an identical pair off eBay for under £5, including postage!

Last time I had DD's feet measured at Clarks the assistant was really helpful and went off to find all the shoes they had in DDs size in the sale.
I would have paid full price for a new pair for her but the assistant even went out back and found sale ones in her size (maybe I was looking really scruffy or something !! lol)
however, I did go next door to Brantano and buy some in the same size cheaper too.
The Brantano sale is always brilliant (I got great suede boots for DD for a fiver) but I do find that because they stock so many different brands you have to watch the sizing.

I go to a local independent store that stocks Start Rite. Much better service from two elderly gentlemen who have been fitting shoes for 40 years or so.

It is important to get well-fitting shoes with just the right amount of room for growth... but if Clarks is so rubbish, can you find any independent stores?

I used to be a Clarks trained shoe fitter many moons ago (about 15 /16 years ago in fact - ouch!) Anyway now I have dd age 3 and also find Clarks much more all about getting the sale than they used to be and it is much more hit / miss fitting-wise too. However, if you are not happy then insist they get the fit checked (this used to be standard practice) or go an smaller independent store if you have one. But please please watch out if you are buying cheaper shoes which are not fitted at all as I have seen childrens feet in the most terrible states due to cheap ill fitting shoes. And had the misfortune to work in the ladies dept too with all the old granny's with horrible horrible feet!!

Thanks guys, for the replys. I have had real agonies about the potential terrible state of his feet coz of 'cheap' ill fitting shoes, but the only time he has ever had any kind of 'damage' to his feet have been from so called properly fitted shoes that cost me an arm and a leg, hence my problem. My original thinking was to have his feet measured every few weeks, and then base my purchases elsewhere on that sizing, although I know they don't do width fittings elsewhere. But given how inaccurate the measurings have been, even that is not reliable.

So, I just tend to use the same method of checking the fit that the so called properly trained fitters use, i.e. thumb check for toe placement, and gentle feeling of width fitting too. Surely as long as that feels okay to me and there are no blisters or marks on his feet this must be okay?

I really went off Clarks after getting the DDs measured one day, DD1 was a skinny E fitting but they didn't have any shoes in her size so got out a standard F fitting and said "it fits her fine" DD2 was a G fitting and guess what they did the exact same with her, ended up with an F fitting as well, oh and a £54 bill for two pairs of shoes. Since then I have had used the shoe guides in Next as well as my owm judgement looking at the shoe how it fits etc.

Checked out the thread Juuule thanks, and I thought Gameboy made a really interesting point about how she measures and checks her dc feet, will put that into practise.

Sweetkitty, that's pretty much what Gameboy said. Oh, and just want to say, it isn't the expense per se, if I felt that I was getting a well made, well fitting product that really gave my ds something that a different, cheaper shoe didn't, I would happily fork out. But that just hasn't been my experience.

Just a note about the trainers....when I joined the RAF I had to have some physio and he told me that the department were really stretched with referrals from new recruits who had grown up in trainers and when it cam to wearing boots they were getting all sorts of problems as they weren't used to wearing shoes/boots, lots of flat feet.

Now I'm not suggesting that your DS is about to sign up but I thought it was an interesting comment and decided then that my children would wear shoes for the majority of the time.

Having said that my physio referral was foot related and I had been brought wearing the most hideous Clarkes shoes

Thanks Mcdreamylove. He does have a pair of boots, and I will be buying him other shoes, the trainers were just a bit of an emergency purchase following the Clarks shoes debacle. But thanks for the info, good to know.

I think that the boys shoes in clarks are pretty much trainers anyway! £26 or £30 for a pair of trainers that may or may not fit.

Bargain.

I am not going back to clarks. I will give starite a try next time