Why are girls shoes so GOPPING?!!

[hoonermum]

I can't stand the agony of shoe shopping for my 7yr old daughter, it makes me angry, upset and close to tears every, single, time and has done so since she first needed shoes. These are the issues:

1. Pink, pale pink, fuschia pink, bright pink with light pink, dark pink with puce pink, sparkly pink, satin pink, or......sick-pink.....pretend patent white whitest of white.......or.....black school shoes.
2. Glitter, sparkles bows, sequins, hearts, lips, Hello Kitty, Pepper Pig, stiletto heel icons, cupcakes, fairies, my-little-ponies with big melting eyes, lace, netting, eyelashes, kisses, flashing lights.
3. Heels (for young children?????!!!!)
4. Canvas, fur, pvc, synthetic sweaty stinky stuff pretending to be leather, pretend fabricy suede-stuff.
5. Almost NOTHING available....EVER......year on year.... from ANY manufacture including Clarkes (despite their claims) for a child with super wide fitting of H-I.

This is what I dreaaaaaammmmmmm of finding in answer to these issues:

1. Orange, green, blue, lemon-yellow, grey, turquoise, skyblue, dusky dirty pink, red, teal, magenta, purple, lilac and any shade of any of those colours, you know.....like the boys shoes are (I know!!!!! I'm CRAZY!)

2.Shoes in cool, funky, modern styles.....like they have on the continent.

1. No Heels. No Broken / sprained / strained ankles. No bum sticking out. No 'sexy' posture.....on a young child.
2. Leather. I know!!!!! CRAZYEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! I'm mad! Why would I want my daughter to have a pair of shoes which don't make her feet smell, take scuffs and play, look great worn-in and resist the rain, I mean.....really, it's April! I should be buying flipflops, right?...or sandals, 'cos that's all there was in some shops.
3. As wide a variety of choice for wide growing feet as there are for kids who don't have wide feet.....however much those choices make me retch. To bath my daughter and see that the skin is not rubbed off her outer toes, for a change.

I'm SOOOOO angry. Everytime is the same. Today I drove nearly 50 miles and visited 11 shops to find a nice, funky pair of shoes for weekends, playing etc for my daughter. Everyshop had school shoes, flip flops, trainers, hi-tops, sandals, wellies, espadrilles, jellies, rubbery shoes, canvas shoes, synthetic shoes, shoes with all the stuff mentioned in issue 1. 2. 3. 4. I COULD NOT find what we wanted. In the mall in Plymouth, a kids Schu shop has opened next to the adult branch of Schu. A shop full to the brim of shoes and only ONE SINGLE pair of leather shoes. I'm not lying....ONE SINGLE PAIR. The assistant said,"Oh, you want FORMAL shoes?". No....just shoes, you know....S H O E S.... footwear that is none of the above in issues 1-4. The one (and only) pair was a lovely cocoa coloured pair of Hush Puppy balerina style with chunky grippy soles and really well made and priced. Daughter love them too. They were a size 12, which was weird, as her current pair are Hush Puppy size 12 and they've got so tight they're taking the skin off her feet....so what was wierd?....the fact that the pair in the shop were so long in size that they fell off her feet as though I'd given her a canoe to try on. W.T.H....? So that was it. No shoes......again.

So now, I'm going to spend probably the next 3 to 4 hours trawling the internet for shoes from abroad, I'll probably find something from France, Spain or Portugal, or even Poland, they'll be expensive, probably around £60/70 before delivery. I'll be crossing my fingers that they fit in the width. They won't fit, I'll send them back and go through the process a couple more times....by end of June I will find something, I'll get lucky maybe, or I'll resort to trawling ebay for 2nd-hand shoes....the worst thing you can do to your childs feet (forcing them into the footbed of another) just because they actually fit in the width and aren't pink etc. She always has a pair of pink / sparkly / lacey / glittery etc shoes of her choice for parties and special times, I don't deny her this stuff, but I'm talking about something she can wear everyday here.

So why are shoes in this country so pimped, so nastily made, from materials that let the rain in or make feet smell or are so narrow or are in colours that some high-pitch-voiced cartoon character with sparkles on her cheeks would wear from some Channel 5 afterschool cartoon? Or aren't fit for wearing on any occasion other than shopping or the beach? What is going on? It never used to be this bad? I can't believe it. Surely, please, I can't be the only one who feels like this / has noticed this? Please someone tell me I'm not the only one. I know lots of us like the girly stuff, that's fine! I don't want to ban it! They're so lucky having so much of it to choose from, but what about the rest of us who don't like it? Who DONT want it. I don't want my daughter growing up thinking that this is what girls shoes should look like.

Does anyone here, know of somewhere (real or internet) where I can buy cool shoes that I can afford for a 7 yr old (they only last 6mnths at best before too tight) with wide fitting feet? I have wide fitting feet and I have the same hell, but at least it's not a pink sparkly hell.

Happy Little Soles sell barefoot shoes from a variety of manufacturers, they are a lovely small company and incredibly helpful.

I've never come across this problem. I've heard a lot of people moaning, including school shoes.

I go to independent shoe shops which often have the European brands like ricosta. School shoes are hard wearing, fair bit of choice in non school.

I do think it helps that my local shop doesn't have "boys" and "girls" sections, so a) the assistants don't fetch me pink girly shite every time and b) the dd's have no concept that shoes are gendered.

I have often bought from the boys section in chains, less pink and more brown and black leather :)

I've bought boys shoes too - or really expensive ones. I feel your rage OP, Lelli Kelli is particularly foul.

Have a look at Livie and Luca.

I have never noticed that there are lots of boys' shoes in leather in colours like turquoise or orange either.

Don't most people just buy standard leather school shoes in black, brown, blue or red?

I think a large part of is is that people want cheap shoes. Leather shoes in small volumes will be more expensive, but if that is what you want you need to find independent retailers, possibly ones who import in small volumes from European manufacturers (though wide fittings might be hard to come by).

For the summer, you could look for canvas shoes (breathable, hard wearing) or the old fashioned buckle sandals. Startrite still make old fashioned sandals, though range of colours isn't great, but if you find an independent shop they might be able to order for you from the full catalogue (which has a bigger range than most shops stock and the unusual sizes).

Kickers, campers, dms, converse, timberland, start rite and clarks have all been worn by my dds. The frustration was the fit - one has very wide feet, the other very tapering to a narrow ankle and even continental shoes haven't been good for fit.

You need to start looking at the boys' shoes!

And uggs are expensive but have ended up as the only boots that fit my dd with the H fit. Some of their shoes are very nice too - but expensive.

I having a real problem finding a decent pair of leather shoes for my DD as well, so you have my sympathy. Everything I've seen in the shops so far have been poor quality and massively over designed.

Really, really, you need to look at Happy Little Soles and Livie and Luca.

Any good?

www.polarnopyret.co.uk/campaigns/quality-kids-kavat-polarnopyret-shoes-footwear

Or here?

www.happylittlesoles.co.uk

Canvas doodle type velcro shoes, crocs or wellies, surely?

That's twice I've read the word gopping on here and before this id never heard of it before

My DD wears Kickers boots. All sorts of colours. They look cool.

Me too Grays - where has it come from?

I think the issue is with the width, rather than lack of choice generally. There are a lot of non pink and sparkly shoes out there. DD wouldn't be seen dead in such a shoe....but she has such narrow feet it's difficult to fines which aren't like boats.

GraysAnalogy I've only read 3 threads tonight and 2 of them include that word. Did it just get invented yesterday?

There's something afoot (?_?)

I haven't found this to be much of an issue actually although I do have a big problem with school shoes being flimsy compared to the boys ones

Outside of school dd (9yo) wears either sandals that we bought in Mountain Warehouse or canvas high tops. I got some blue spotty ones from Boden (in the sale) that look cool. She has some trainers as well which are more for when she goes running.

Not sure why she would need any other shoes.

Fabulous post op,

A real piece of artistic and superbly written -totally agree with you-wording.

Brilliantly written post OP. I have a similar problem finding boys shoes in a narrow fitting. There is a choice of brown, black, brown, or black with footballs on.
It took a month to find the red shoes DS wanted. He is still wearing them 3 years later despite the fact his toes are practically curled under his feet like an old Chinese woman he loves them so much. I cannot for the life of me see why manufacturers cannot make shoes practical and yet attractive and in a range of styles to suit everyone. Drives me mad

Buy her some concer shoes, heck you can even have them made for her if her feet are really that wide.

Lovely trad t bar. Any colour you like

Expensive , but thry can be remade bigger so thry last longer too

conkershoes.com/shop/rowan/107/21/#.VTwGTYGkqrU

I love these - but only one width The width is always going to be a problem.