Welcome to Mumsnet's shopping board. Whether you are after a new family car or a great new coffee machine this is the board for you. Share product recommendations and reviews here. Related: Discuss clothes and fashion on our Style and beauty forum. Check out Swears By to find the products Mumsnetters love and our reviews section to see the best baby and child products put through their paces.
Welcome to Mumsnet's shopping board. Whether you are after a new family car or a great new coffee machine this is the board for you. Share product recommendations and reviews here. Related: Discuss clothes and fashion on our Style and beauty forum. Check out Swears By to find the products Mumsnetters love and our reviews section to see the best baby and child products put through their paces.
Shopping
aaaargh children's shoes
hattynewyear · 03/01/2005 22:20
ok I'm after chapter and verse from all of you. I'm opening the floor to all comments but answers to the following would be particularly welcome: Am I the only person who can NEVER find shoes that I really like? How many do your kids have and where do you get them from? Are "school" shoes deliberately so horrid to con us all into buying our 5 year olds two pairs when one would do? Does anyone actually like nubuck (that fake swede effect stuff that seems to be on every shoe and that looks grand for about two days then looks -permanently - filthy. Is nubuck perhaps another retail conspiracy to get us to buy more shoes than we need? How can they possily justify charging £40 for a pair of kids' boots? And, most importantly of all, does anyone know where I can buy a pair of shoes that are a little bit pretty, but definitely no sequins or anything tacky, but simple enough for school, suitable for winter (ie not Mary-Janes) and that look good with both trousers and skirts? Or am I living on another planet? I don't want much out of life but I would like to stick to the one season one shoe (or rather one pair) principle if at all possible.
JulieF · 03/01/2005 22:24
Start-rite do some nice black and navy t bar shoes that have a small flower design on in a discreet dark purple colour. If you are not worried about them being totally plain black then they are nice.
I wanted plain black for dd and have ended up with a make called Buckle My Shoe. However they are a bit heavier in style.
hattynewyear · 03/01/2005 22:26
I like Buckle My Shoe for style - they had some nice quite chunky black t-bar ones that we tried on today but they were an awful fit. Her last ones were Buckle My Shoe and I'm a bit sceptical about how well the people in our shop are trained to fit them. No width fittings either and DD has narrow feet
lockets · 03/01/2005 22:27
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snowyduck · 03/01/2005 22:31
i sat waiting in Clarks the other day for an hour, then ds1 had a choice of 2 pairs of shoes in his size. After deciding one pair were a bad fit we plumped for the other not particularly fab looking shoes only to be told that the other one to the pair was missing. Waited another 10 minutes whilst girl hunted for it to no avail and left with nothing grrrrrrrrrrrrrr
FFS how many one legged customers do they get in there!
lockets · 03/01/2005 22:33
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lockets · 03/01/2005 22:34
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JulieF · 03/01/2005 22:36
One of the reasons we had Buckle my Shoe Hatty is that dd has a high instep but a small size 6F. Clarks and Start-Rite only start their plain black school shoes in size 7 except for one Start-Rite style where her instep means they don't fit properly.
I also don't like patent (OR nubuck) so the choice is limited, especially in Clarks.
hattynewyear · 03/01/2005 22:49
I was in Clarks today and ran away coz the machine gave me ticket no 105 and they were only on 88. Couldn't see anything I like anyway
lockets · 03/01/2005 22:51
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Gwenick · 03/01/2005 22:53
You're all going to think I'm a dreadful mother now - but I go to Clarkes to get DS's feet measured - then go off elsewhere to buy their shoes! Well actually DS2 is currently where DS1's old shoes and DS1 has only recently out grown the last pair of 2nd hand shoes sent down by my cousin
Linnet · 03/01/2005 22:54
We always go to Clarks for dd's shoes and we've never had a problem finding shoes that look good. In answer to a couple of your questions dd has at the moment 1 pair of trainers and 1 pair of boots that she wears to school. The boots are knee high black patent with a white flower on the side, she chose them and she loves them. And they didn't cost anywhere near £40, I wouldn't pay that much for childrens shoes they grow out of them far to quickly to justify that amount.
In the spring she gets a pair of summery type shoes for school and has trainers or doodles for the summer holidays.
A friend of mine took her dd to an independant shoe shop in town, after trying on loads of shoes she finally got a pair that fitted looked ok etc and was charged £54 for them! That is one shoe shop I've never been to and after hearing that have no intentions of ever going to.
My cousin swears by Start rite shoes, there is only 1 shop in our town that sells them and I've never found any that I like there and the lady who serves in that shop is an old dragon.
lockets · 03/01/2005 22:56
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hattynewyear · 03/01/2005 22:56
Lockets - on the whole I agree about Clarks. I find the best fitters are - to my suprise - in Russell and Bromley - they seem really well-trained and attentive
lockets · 03/01/2005 22:57
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mummytojames · 03/01/2005 23:03
we take ds to clarks people say there expensive but i dont find 28 pound for a pair of tidy well fitted shoes that bad you could pay more just a bit grmpy at the fact how quick they grow out of them.
when i was growing up i had two pairs at a time tidy shoes which was school and nice clothing and my trainers which was going out to play hth
lockets · 03/01/2005 23:05
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hattynewyear · 03/01/2005 23:15
Lockets - that's the Russell and Bromley I was talking about! But why do you have to go elsewhere for Startrite - John Lewis and R&B do them. Or are you not actually in Kingston?
lockets · 03/01/2005 23:20
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hattynewyear · 03/01/2005 23:24
yes, we're in south Kingston - I like it a lot, we use Surbiton station which is a quicker and more frequent service than Kingston, we're close to the river and walking distance to town. Someone recommended a shoe shop to me in Putney after I said hI liked her dd's shoes - they were gorgeous. I think it's a smallish independent shop - do you know which it might be?
whitepixmas · 03/01/2005 23:27
I usually go to Clarks because both my children have wide feet but I do get annoyed when I wait around for ages and then they never have the one pair I actually LIKE in the right size. Last time I was looking for school shoes for Ds and there was NOTHING suitable at all. They were all clumpy (he isn't a good walker due to sensory problems)and nearly all had laces. Try tying laces on an autistic four year old and you will know why I didn't want laces!!
Anyway, against my better judgement because I was worried about the fitting, I went to Brantanos and got the most gorgeous little shoes. Only £20, nice soft leather and a lovely fit. He has had them since september and they still look like new. I know where I'm going next time!
lockets · 03/01/2005 23:32
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hattynewyear · 03/01/2005 23:33
I live about 50 yards from the main Uni campus!
lockets · 03/01/2005 23:35
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hattynewyear · 03/01/2005 23:43
Grove Crescent - it's off Penrhyn Road. where did you look?
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