Can we talk school shoes please.....Boys in particular..I need help!!!!!!!!!!

[Dozymare]

Ok, DS is starting school in September and I have been looking at school shoes in advance as he has wide feet (g/f fitting) and I really really HATE anything flashing, with a toy car in or clumpy....

What I would really like are some good old fashioned t-bars.....;the boy's equivalents for Mary janes....can anyone help??!

Thanks

Ricosta

Someone's already mentioned Ricostas - they are really good practical school shoes - my DS has got "Jack" for school.

If your school is not too formal he might be able to wear GEOX which are fab casual shoes - DS can only wear them out of school but they are utterly fab

Yep they are thew Kickers - they are fab as they can't kick hell out of the front on account of the sole extending too far aout for them to do so and they last at least twice as long as all the other startrite and clarks shoes I have bought for her!

Geox do formal school shoes too .

Dozy I have to agree with you on the school shoes thing. I found that all of the Clarks look like trainers. I wanted nice traditional shoes for DS1, but we live in a rural area so we don't have a lot of choice. I finally got him a pair of OshKosh shoes that are quite traditional.

It was a bit more urgent for us as we live in Scotland and school starts in 3 weeks

I'm with you seeker, lights in the shoes are fun... crikey, you get threads bemoaning the boring school clothes, at least they can wear funky socks and shoes with personality.

(whispers, [foreigner alert] I think those t-bar styles are ugly)

but why do school shoes need to be fun ? It is a marketing gimmick to enable the manufacturers to put an extra couple of £ profit in their margins and sell more volkume fo the mroe profitable styles. What I really resent is the aiming of the marketing at the kids who after all aren't the ones who pay but can apply the emotioanl pressure.

shoes with toys plastic tat in the sole are shoes with personality. I feel sorry for the kids of today if thats the way they express personality.

i like geox too, v good for wide feet, as are some ricosta. a good independent shoe shop should have some nice little continental style high shoes/short boots which will be perfect.

also t bars may not be good for wide foot, i have high instep and anything that fastens over it is painful (or it doesn't do up).

Dizzymare I wouldn't be so sure about your DS not beinf affected by what others wear. Children become much more self-aware in recpetion then they ever where in nursery. He will get commnets about wearing girl's shoes if he's got t bars on, and it's not quite the same as playing cowboys is it, as you're choosing and controlling what type of shoes he wears, he's not choosing the t bars is he?

sorry if repeating, but my ds's need black shoes for school/nursery and we go to a big russll and bromley in salisbury, which has a clarks a few doors down., the R&B stocks lots of makes etc tho, inc most clarks. lots of the 'proper' school shoes from startrite et al are pretty heavy and clumpy, which we've had, but the last pair for ds2 was an all black v basic trainer style from clarks. they were velco (easy) nice and neat, not embellished with lights/toys/ lightweight and comfy. and polishable.
i will be buying all 3 ds's more of them in sept.

all of the ricosta,geox,startrite "proper" school shoes that DS tried on at the weekend were surprisingly light, I expected them to be quite heavy and clumpy but was pleasantly surprised that thsi was not the case.

Dozymare - have you tried Vertbaudet?

did you know you can get flashing croc type things now. and flashing sandals. and even flashing slippers. and wellies. sigh.