Toddler refuses any new shoes or sandals, any tips please?

[Newlymrsj]

My 22 month old will not have anything “new” on her feet. Her feet seem to grow slowly, so through autumn/winter/spring she’s had the same pair of trainers and wellies. However, she’s growing out of these but will not entertain anything new. She bursts into tears the minute we walk into Clark’s to get measured, and she will not allow anything new on her feet. She’ll touch them, pick them up, let her teddies wear them, but she won’t have them on herself, and if we do force it, she has a big meltdown screaming to get them off, and then takes around 15 minutes to calm down once they are off.
I’m probably on around my tenth pair of trying now - including crocs with bunnies on (bunnies are her favourite), flowery sandals like mummy’s etc. Nothing works.
Our grass is fake and gets extremely hot in the summer, so playing barefoot isn’t an option and she will need to have some form of sandal, croc etc which I also thought would be great for water play too.
Any tips for a mum at the end of her tether please?

I have one of these. I have a video of him somewhere having a meltdown in Clarks. In the end, we just bought the same trainers in half a size up. So they look largely the same. We transition him on a day when he’s in a good mood, then just keep mixing them up for a week or so until he stops noticing and then remove the old ones. We also have the same shoes in different colours. I appreciate that it’s not great for all scenarios, but this approach works for us.

Our daughter was like this and was often barefoot as a toddler. She couldn’t tolerate any bits of cotton inside socks ( often found if there’s a logo)
New shoes were a nightmare and they were good with her at the Clark’s shop. It was a mixture of change and sensory needs. She did get a SPD diagnosis.
She also liked to wear a baseball cap when young.
Also linked to sensory needs.
Some info here

https://www.steppingstonesforchildren.com.au/what-to-do-when-your-child-hates-wearing-shoes-and-socks/