Should I be panicking about school shoes?

[Poocatcherchampion]

Our requirements are slightly non standard as she has wide deep feet that don't work with a lot of Mary Jane styles and I am very reluctant to get super structured rigid styles like Clark's and startrite offer.

Lots of my favoured barefoot brands are sold out in her size -eu26.

I'm going to the supermarkets tomorrow.

If you had this sort of footshape to dress and don't believe in the Clark's/startrite marketing what did you get?

Obviously heels and other totally insubstantial shoes are out of the question.
She is 4.

Structured schools for school are probably necessary. Most places will be starting to run low by now though. Do your favoured manufacturers make school schools?

We did but I went to Clarks.

Structured shoes are never necessary in themselves. It is a very English thing.

The only reason I would buy them is if I can't get any others not because they are a good idea.

So what do you want exactly? A nonstructured shoe to fit a child who has precise requirements?

Have a look on ebay, l bought my dd a new pair of petisil as I hate clarkes

Where are you based? The are some brilliant independent shops around which stock alternative brands.

By unstructured do you mean open? Or just not leather? I'm not sure I understand what you're looking for. One of my boys had quite sensitive feet (asd and sensory ussues) and he wore Ecco shoes shich were extremely soft and just one piece of leather across the top. How do they climb and skip and play football in unstructured shoes? That's a genuine qu. I'm not being goady.

We use an independent shoe shop. I dislike clarks because they're gaudy. Shoes have been startrite, Ecco, geox and the Italian one that begins with pim.

My post wasn't clear, sorry. Dd has very wide feet, big ankles and a high instep. She also likes Mary Jane styles. We've got on ok with Clarks so we've made it our first post of call.

Livie and Luca have two styles (Oak and Ruche) which come in navy and brown. Pediped have black ones and you can buy on ebay.

Thanks for suggestions - eBay is somewhere I haven't looked yet.

Yes I mean livie and luca, vivo, see kai run etc soft leather with straps. All tend to be robust and hard wearing and not ridiculous girly styles covered with hearts and flowers and crap which dh says should not form part of my criteria
Often unisex styles too although I am not expecting school shoes to pass down to siblings particularly

Yes she has livie and Luca ruche which I love but we need black - uniform is green

If you have unusual feet go to an independent not a supermarket.

It depends when you go back to school, but I'm leaving it till September.

Either I like to live on the edge or have learned factories keep making school shoes so there's no need to panic. I speak as some one who has purchased roughly 40 pairs of school shoes over the past 12 years.

Have you tried ricosta?

Thank you Lynette for the word of sense there about waiting :)

I feel I keep getting ripped off by fitters as one of the dds always seems to end up with ones that rub - at least the independents are better about returns but ive just about had it with buying shoes. My preferred method is buying a tonne online and trying them all at home.

Interesting that noone so far has piped up in favour of supermarkets or the high street. Clark's are raking it in

My DD had the same problem at that age. I ended up getting some from Amazon which were perfect. They were t bar shoes with a buckle. I'm not sure that's what you're looking for though!

Call or email Happy Little Soles (happylittlesoles.co.uk) and they will provide exactly what you need - the ones they recommend for high insteps are Bobux or Angelus, iirc. I always buy from there and the customer service is amazing - I measure my kids feet and describe what they need eg high instep and get back a list of recommendations.

That is what I am looking for pants - any idea what they were? Amazon is proving a black hole

Mirror - happy little soles is my retailer of choice but their website has been down all day hence my panic. i thought it was a rush on shoes! But it was a glitch apparently

well personally I don't like Clarks because they don't last, I do however like Start rite - I expect you won't get people on here saying you should get them because you said right at the start that wasn't what you were looking for.

I have just googled the makes you do like as they aren't ones I am familiar with. For really soft leather shoes I would agree with the suggestions of Ecco or Geox, they are soft and often quite padded round the heel.

We always go to an independent shoe shop near us, much better service, more knowledgeable and a better mixed range of shoes available.

Both Ecco and geox do very soft leather school schools. But then my son also had a pair last year from startrite which weighed about as much as a 10p coin. Incredibly light, very bendy and again, one very soft piece of leather across the front.

But I'm still confused because I would describe any of those shoes as unstructured. Unstructured in my head is materials such as latex or spandex or Lycra. (I know they're not technically materials) leather to me is a structured material so I'm still a bit confused as to what is is you are looking for.

• The above sounds harsh when I mean it genuinely. I'm curious as to what defines structured/unstructured.

I googled livie and luca and I can't see how they are more unstructured that startrite, Ecco or geox?

www.vivobarefoot.com/uk/kids/neo-leather-black-kids?colour=Black

26, in stock, awesome shoes. not cheap.

structured - where the shoe is designed to control the foot.
unstructured - where the shoe is designed to cover the foot.

Thanks. If the child's foot moves around rather than being held in place, does it not risk blisters? So the Ecco shoes that my Ds loved that were exceptionally soft and comfy were actually bad for his feet? I'll need to rethink maybe.

You do need some durability though. They will be worn in all weathers, for walking, running, climbing, kicking, digging and more.
I think structure is no bad thing here.