Recommendations for durable black leather school shoes after Clarks quality decline

[OrdinaryGirl]

DC are now nearly 13, 10 and 10, and every September we’ve ALWAYS bought Clark’s leather school shoes - for primary school anyway.

They were expensive but always used to last a full school year and that’s why we kept buying them. (The Twins Trust member discount helped a bit)

However, in keeping with the enshittification of basically everything, we’ve noticed a real deterioration of Clarks quality over the last 3 years. The leather seems to be sort of re-formed, and less of it… one pair actually fell apart about 5 months after purchase. The other developed holes by about 8 months.
It’s got to the point where I’m no longer prepared to get them for the twins.

Would really appreciate recommendations for black leather school shoes at roughly the same price point as Clarks, (happy to pay a bit more) where the quality is better. Thanks in advance. 🙏🏼

I am quite miffed at Clarks for doing this.

Geox is pretty good.

I've found ones from Geox, hush puppies and surprisingly M&S to be better than Clarks in the last few years

Clarks are crap. Never had an issue with startrite.

M&S.
They have measuring gauges in store. It’s not rocket science. I’m convinced that Clark’s are trying to baffle us with smoke & mirrors and are surfing on a reputation they no longer deserve.

I fell out with Clark’s about 10+ years ago, when DS’s school shoes lasted half a term (he doesn’t play football and we only lived about 200 m from school) and they refused to sell DD (then 2) a pair of “boys shoes” on the basis that girls’ feet and boys’ feet are different (my podiatrist friend assures me that this is not the case at 2).
We bought M&S shoes as a stop gap, but they lasted a year. You can take the insoles out to get an extra half size out of them. I continued to buy M&S school shies until the dc sized out of them (we are a family of yetis).

I agree clarks have has there day, how about Sketchers.
They last awhile and my DC seem to like them

When my kids hit secondary, everyone was in Nike Air Force 1s. And I have to say that I've been amazed by their quality. DS was in one pair for almost two academic years due to his feet not growing much - so wearing Mon-Fri, including for PE. When they became dull and scuffed, a swipe of Cherry Blossom had them looking almost new again. Only downside is that some schools don't allow them (even though they're a black leather shoe).

Next or Hush Puppies have been good for us. Lasted the whole year for DD. She likes a proper enclosed shoe with a decent sole as it makes her run faster 😆 I like them because they're more weatherproof.

Staff at Clarks were puzzled why I disagreed that their Mary jane style ballet flats that they offered were not suitable for a Scottish winter.

Brilliant replies, thank you!
Fully agree about Airforce1s - we got those for DS1 when he started Year 7 (MN recommendation) and they are still more or less pristine.
I tend to not mind so much shelling out more for DS1’s stuff as we’ll get the wear out of it later with the twins. But two lots of Airforce 1s at age 10, the rate they’re growing, might be a bit much 😣

Agree with all of these. Girls don't have to suffer with silly thin soles either. I always got DD a good, solid, shoe.

If primary school allows them and the girls would be happy with that style then look at the nike court borough style for the younger 2. Super durable like the AF1s but less than half the price which is what you want while they’re still growing!

I bought my granddaughter’s from DEICHMANN , they have hush puppies , kickers and their own brand with an offer of buy one get one half price .
Plenty of styles to choose from and we found her perfect ones with very little fuss .

DD has a pair of black leather trainers from Schuh own brand this year. I’ve given up with leather school shoes, DD loves playing and running around and they get wrecked and we’ve gone through brands like Geox, Startrite, Ricosta.

The twins are boys (think a couple of other posters upthread were talking about girls’ shoes) but I’ll take a look at Nike - thank you! 😊
EDITED to add: just checked the uniform policy - no trainers! Bugger.

Oh sorry even easier then if they’re boys! So long as they pass the school uniform rules then I’d definitely go with all black trainers, just a cheaper style than AF1s whilst they’re still growing so quickly. The borough courts if they want Nike, if they don’t care then Adidas tensaurs are also really solid.

People are moaning about Clark’s but the reality is that the prices haven’t increased much so something has to give, I paid £36 for dds last school pair 9 years ago, same design is £40 now, more pertinent they were £25 when I was at school! Many things are 4 times the price from my school days, but school shoes and more to the point school uniform is not, my blazer was £30 in 1986, local school blazers this year is £37.

I always bought DMs. They always lasted until they were outgrown, and the last pair did my daughter from year 10 to the end of year 13.

Dr Martens (worn once off Vinted, we get very lucky!). £120 new, £15 including delivery God bless Vinted.

Timberland boots fell to bits 3 months of light wear in, which was quite shocking actually. The enshitification is so maddening.

I would rather they increased the price and kept the quality.

So would I. There’s plenty of cheap shoes around. Their USP was that they were good quality.

Start Rite. They often have bargains in the outlet section too.

So I am not sure if they are leather but I highly recommend Be Greater barefoot shoes (online only). Comfy light and have a number of features like a kind of reinforced toe that mean they last.

Find an independent shoe shop that has a variety of brands. We have one that stocks many brands but never Clarks. I went off the total ineptitude of the staff especially around the summer time when busy. They seemed to be trained in the very basics badly and no customer facing ness. Not helpful when you have to try a couple of styles on.

I’ve got startrite for my kids for years since and they are brilliant quality but not cheap at all. Nothing is though if you want quality.

I agree. I found M&S school shoes far more hardwearing than Clark's.

Nike air force 1.