School shoe hunt, Edinburgh. Too small for lace ups?

[sixp]

My ds requires black lace ups for school, but he's only about a size 12. Most lace ups seem to start at around size 3. Has anyone else had this problem and found a stockist? We've tried John Lewis, Russell & Bromley, Clarks and Startrite - none of which can kit him out! We are about to check out Maddie & Marks, have left this to last as I've been sold very poor fitting shoes from them in the past. I don't really want to buy shoes online as he has a high instep and finds things generally quite uncomfortable around the heel. We also need rugby boots which are going to be tricky too. What's the difference between them and football boots as the shop assistants don't seem to know?

Have you tried Aitken and Niven for the rugby boots? Don't know if they also do school shoes, but worth asking?

Do you have a Charles Clinkard nearby? Found these and Hush Puppies may do more?

Rugby boots have different kind of studs,generally the studs are interchangeable so they can be unscrewed and replaced with different kinds.Many schools specify metal studs because plastic can fray and become sharp.

Thank you, I will try Aitken & Niven for the rugby boots. I didn't know they did them. I haven't heard of Charles Clinkard, but I will look that one up.

Hi Sixp

I saw your post today, I am the owner of the new childrenswear shop in Stockbridge called Treehouse. Looking at our range of school shoes, we offer two pairs of boys school shoes in black, in sizes 12 & 12.5 with laces and all my staff are trained to measure and fit shoes. Although we are a new shop I have worked with children's shoes for many years so have a lot of experience dealing with all shapes and sizes. We offer Start-rite, Ricosta, Hush Puppies, Angry Angels and Lelli Kelly's for back to school. However we do not offer rugby boots at this stage. We would love to meet your needs.
Just to let you know our address is 10-12 Hamilton Place, Stockbridge, EH3 5AU, open 7 days a week.

Thank you for getting in touch. I had a very brief search for your shop online but could only find the treehouse cafe. No doubt due to my poor www skills! We will certainly visit.

Not at all, its just not in the google search just yet. its www.treehousechildrenswear.co.uk. However we do not have an e-commerce website just yet, we should get that up soon. Hope to see you soon.

Hi there - I'm really sorry to hear about your experience at Maddie & Mark's. We do now have a wider range of lace up school shoes in our Buckstone branch but they can be transfered over to any of our shops. The lace ups arrived later on and we have at least 4 different styles now available. I'm keen to hear about your bad experience as we pride ourselves on our training and customer service and if we have an issue with a staff member then I need to know about it! Please get in touch via our website at [email protected] and I'd really appreciate your feedback. Thanks.

Following this post, we did go in to Maddie & Marks at Blackhall. They had no options in store to try and after phoning Buckstone, no options to send over either. We had seen an Ecco lace up on the Maddie & Marks website which said it came in my ds's size, but when we asked about this the staff said it was probably just not updated from last year and that there was absolutely no way they could order an Ecco shoe, as they order them a year in advance! They had no solutions to offer and seemed pretty inconvenienced by us. In addition the young chap who was serving us had to constantly relay information from and to other staff, as he seemed inexperienced. Wouldn't it have been easier for the senior staff to try and help us directly, especially as we were the first and only customer in the store at that time?
On a previous occasion my daughter was sold shoes which dug into her badly and caused her feet to bleed. The attendants made us feel as if this was our fault, and pointed out that she was pronating - which surely they should have noted at time of fitting, that's why I have shoes fitted.
On another point, there never seems to be the lovely shoes which are on display in stock and I do not want to buy something too large for my child and pad it out with an insole.
Having a wide circle of mum friends, I know I am not the only one having had negative experiences.

Try www.happylittlesoles.co.uk

They have a black lace up to size 1.

If you do use them please feel free to pm me for my referral name as they run a loyalty scheme.

Thank you lagoon haze. We now have some from Aitken and Niven. Thank goodness!

I'm sorry again to hear about your experience. We did have that ecco shoe in stock but it sold out really quickly in many sizes and we are waiting for another delivery which was due a few weeks ago. Ecco has had major issues due to flooding in its factories and as a result we have had delays in deliveries. Most of our stock is ordered at least six months in advance and the majority of the suppliers don't hold stock unfortunately. I wish they would but they don't.

All our staff are fully trained and we are recommended by podiatrists and specialists in Edinburgh and Glasgow. I originally opened the shops as I was concerned that I couldn't get well fitted shoes for my daughter who has additional needs. It obviously hurts me personally that you feel you had such a bad experience, especially as many children are referred to us by specialists due to our training and expertise. I totally take on board and thank you for your comments and will speak to my whole team tomorrow as this is a real blow for me. We work so hard and feedback like this is not only damaging but very upsetting. We take it all very personally.