Boys' shoes and clothes - where to get nice ones!???

[JM70]

Hello all, apologies if this is a recurring thread.

Have returned home after failed shoe shopping mission to Clarks. No such thing it seems as shoes for my 7 year old son which are not trainers or black school shoes. He is a size three. This apparently makes him a teenager. He is tall for his age but not freakishly so! What is going on here? Where else can I get age appropriate, stylish, weekend shoes for him, that are not trainers?

Have sent very stroppy email to Clarks as they had me on the run around for a couple of weeks trying to get a pair for him.

And while I'm on the subject, where else can you get brightly coloured clothes for boys? Most shops seem to stock things which are sludge colour, and semi-military styles. Like the campaign for getting pink out of girls' clothes, why is it that boys' clothes are so dull and sterotyped? Boden do ok things, as do John Lewis, but if there is anywhere more off the beaten track, I'd love to know about it....

Try Papillon shoes. They're in Marylebone and Victoria but also have a website.

Thanks Vixsatis. They have really nice boots! I'm going to bookmark them. Not what I want this time, but definitely worth knowing about

shoes are the bane of my life ever since DS first pair! He is a size 12 but has only just turned 4 yrs so he is always in the next age-bracket for styles. When he was not-quite-three, all clarks had in his size was black school shoes! I tend to go to a couple of independent stores. They usally do start-rite & a couple of european brands.

For clothes, my boys seem to have a lot of stuff from Sainsburys atm, although I did notice last week that the older boys stuff was getting more & more sludge coloured than previously!

And Hennes, but you have to pop in fairly often as the good stuff seems to go very quickly.

There is also that lovely scandinavian shop polarnopyret , but sadly too expensive for me

My big hate is skulls on boys clothing!

I get most my ds(8) clothes from Zara, who have very stylish clothes and footwear also H&M is good for not so dull clothes.

Hello GetOutMyPub :-)

Age brackets and shoe sizes was one of the major grumps that I had in my little email to Clarks. As the most well known supplier of kids' shoes, surely they must know that our boys have big feet!

I used to go to Sainsburys too, but now DS is 7 (but age 10 in clothing) all that is available is sludge. And skulls, and tanks, and motorbikes, and camouflage. So plan to vote with my feet. Not been to Hennes for a while. Will check them out. Polarnopyret looks lovely - I didn't know about them. Maybe ebay/sales time.

What I want is a fail safe list of places to go - I really don't like shopping! Life would be so much easier if you could just go in the shop, find the right thing, and then go home and do something more interesting instead.

Thank you MangoBrain. Zara is good too - their sizing is a bit small, but often have good colours, and pics.

Hi all, I'm a single mum working p/t.My son is 13 year's old at 6ft 2" and wears a size 14 shoe. Could anybody tell me where I can find decent, reasonable priced shoes as I'm on a budget, thanks

I really like morissons nutmeg range, lovely colours for boys and very good value. I know you asked about shoes rather than trainers but we have found the walking style boots and trainers in sports direct really good. They look 'cool' and are really used wearing. Some cheap end suggestions for you there!