Girls' shoes

[Adagoo]

Since having a DD I have been seeing sexism everywhere :(

The main thing to make me livid this week is girls shoes. My DS wears clarks shoes with a rubber toe part so they don't get scuffed to shit in 15 seconds.

I look at my niece's shoes and wonder why DSis buys such stupid impractical shoes. I mean without the rubber toe section, not that they're in heels

I was to discover that they don't make shoes designed for walking about rough play if you are a girl.

Am I right? I've looked on the Clarks site and got a bit excited, but then saw that the special toe section was shiny patent

Anyone know where you can buy girl's shoes designed for being a child and not just sitting on a cushion?

Again, sports shops will usually have some plainer/non pink ones. Though TBH we usually found something OK in the Clarkes Cica range, some of them may have been 'boys' white and blue, some girls non-pink.

I buy my DD's shoes from an outdoors shop. Trainers and walking shoes for the summer (and I have to confess to Clarks Doodles for holidays) and walking boots for winter. This winter I'm hoping to get her some nice "dressy" boots that aren't pink and are quite sturdy.

Since she's gone up to junior sizing, it's a lot easier. I always buy Karrimor boots/shoes as they seem really hardwearing, flexible and cool.

And they're good for non-cushion-sitting clothes too

adagoo - those are perfect but yes, bloody expensive!

I like those shoes Adagoo but no way can i spend £60 on kids shoes. I've got three. Eek!

It's the weatherproofness that winds me up the most. DD has some nice cool sturdy open sided Mary Janes from Clarks for summer but when we had the snowy patch last year I had no end of a job finding a closed top pair of school shoes. I eventually tracked down a single Startrite pair in John Lewis (although I found a nice pair of unisex black leather trainers - I think they were Converse).

Clarks seems to get better after size 3 for some reason - but the primary girls who need something to run around in are only offered feeble little slip ons. M&S girls shoes were particularly bad last time I checked.

kickers ?

It's the 'pinkification' aspect that pees me off, as munkiii said. The pinkification that equates with an expectation of passivity.

Girls shoes are terrible - they are simply too soft and unsupportive. DD's foot is rolling as a consequence. The only girls shoes that actual keep the foot upright are startrite classic sandals, but they have stopped making them in larger sizes. As a consequence DD is now only wearing boys shoes (she is 10) and is happy to do so.

It is hard- regarding the pink thing as you can choose what you want for your own DD (obviously I choose to have some girly things!) but not what others buy. I have family who I know are going to throw Disney Princess tat at her as soon as they can, their own DDs are quite the princesses! This same family thinks I am being no fun and silly for my views... what can you do?

Thanks for all these shoe links, lots to think about and thanks OP for starting this interesting thread!

I just took a quick look at the Clarkes website - there are plenty of 'boys' sandals which would look fine on a girl - maybe someone should tell their marketing dept to stop selling by gender but to label them 'activewear' or suchlike?

And surely these would look better on a girl than a boy...

You see I would go for this sort of thing but DD knows which is the girls section and wants something the girls at nursery will approve of. You know what they're like. It's such a shame.

sardine queen

MY EYES!!!!!!!!!!!!

They didn't have those buggers in our local shop but I suspect I might have vetoed on grounds of outrageous luridness

it is the classic thing that the boy version is normal, and the girls' version is freakishly pink. At least they are the same design and not made of paper :)

I buy Converse, shoes from outdoor type shops like Regatta and Mountain Warehouse and shoes from the boys range at Clarks (DD has blue trainers and green sandals this summer, both of which she loves). We have also found some lovely shoes at places like T K Maxx and outlet villages.

This type of sandal is usually the one we go for:
here

but I regularly check here to make sure I get them cheaper. I have my eye on those purple trainers for DD atm.

I must be lucky in that my DD is entirely happy with the concept that while boys are pretty much limited to 'boys' stuff, she can choose from the whole range. (clothes as well as shoes).

Try to foster this attitude, it really does help!

Grimma I totally agree. It was a real revelation when I realised that we weren't restricted to just one area of the shop. Nowadays DD (6) walks straight to the boys section and starts browsing and gives shop assistants waving pink and glittery monstrosities at her very short shrift.

I absolutely agree re. Clarks girls shoes, and the madness of gender separating them. Its also quite hard getting the staff in shoe shops round here to sell you the boys shoes for a girl. We went in to buy dd trainers recently, and asked to see any styles that they had in dd's size, only constraints being no pink (dd won't wear pink) and nothing mainly white (my rule as they get filthy). Despite specifically saying that dd would be happy with boys styles, we were brought only the one girls' style to choose from. As it happens, it fitted and was fine (navy with a bit of a pattern), but surely the shoe shop owner was potentially turning away custom if it hadn't suited.

I'd agree though that outdoor shops are a good place to look, dd wore hiking boots for school through most of the winter, especially good for the cold snowy weather, and has outdoor style sandals now.

Grimma, I like your idea of suggesting to Clarks that they degender their ranges and simply have 'activewear' - perhaps we should write en masse?

I am really beyond caring about the actual appearance of the shoes. I would let DD wear diamante encrusted candy pink shoes if they actually fit and supported her feet. She has an irregular width fitting (G) and so can only wear shoes from shops that have a range of width fittings. The Clarks girls shoes for older girls simply do not support the feet. They are mostly ballerina style or very soft leather - apparently loads of young girls now have feet problems (which lead to joint problems) because of ballerina style shoes and ugg boots. DD has never worn either (although she has had soft girls' boots), but now she is too big for startrite sandals she has no option but to wear boys' shoes or end up with all manner of problems because of this rolling foot.

Sorry, getting a bit ranty, but I have been through this in so many shoes shops and I do not understand how places like Clarks can sell shoes like this to children (and older girls feet are still growing - they need support just like younger girls), when they do not support the foot:

www.clarks.co.uk/find/keyword-is-red/product-is-20342990

We did get a pair of shoes like this, and took them into a traditional shoe shop; they could not believe the complete lack of support in the shoes. I returned them to Clarks and DD is in boys shoes for the rest of the summer. It seems the black Clarks school shoes for older girls had the same issue:

www.clarks.co.uk/find/enduses-is-school/department-is-girls/product-is-20343004

The traditional shop are reserving me a girls pair that totally enclose and support the foot from the autumn range when it comes in:

www.startriteshoes.com/girls/school-shoes/mercury

I spend a fortune on shoes as I don't like clarks at all. They always tell me that dd1 is an F fitting and the shoes are like boats on her. She is an E fitting and clarks don't tend to have these in stock so they always try and fob us off with an F.

Have been buying Angulus or Bisgaard for her and although eye wateringly expensive they last for ages and fit her really well. I spend more on her shoes than I would on a pair for me.

If anyone's interested I got this back:

Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your feedback. I was sorry to learn of your disappointment with our current range of girls shoes. Availability of styles and sizes works on a supply and demand basis, however we do try and offer something suit all of our customers.

We are always glad to receive feedback from our customers as it lets us know if you are satisfied with what we offer as a company. I have been in contact with our Children's department and so far they have not been able to design anything suitable for the girls range to protect from scuffing, however they are still looking into creating a range similar to the Grippa styles which are currently available for boys.

We do take on board all comments and feedback about our products/services from customers and I can assure you that your comments will be passed onto the correct teams, so that they are able to take your comments on board for any improvements we will make in the future.

I do hope that you will continue to shop with us and enjoy wearing Clarks.

Adagoo, for some reason I find that response hilarious. They cannot invent a girl's shoe that does not scuff? Is it some kind of scientific and technological problem that cannot be overcome, because girls' feet are so different from boys' feet that we may as well be talking about the difference between providing shoes for horses and kangaroos? How bizarre.

They 'have not been able to design anything for the girls range to protect from scuffing'????

What the actual fuck?

They might as well say. 'We have not been able to design anything comfortable' or 'We have not been able to design anything waterproof'

Surely scuff proof is fundamental.

I am boggled.

That is SO utterly ridiculous. They could just take the 'grippa' styles and make them PINK, FFS.

Not that I'd buy them [anti-pink emoticon]