Children's Shoes Cost A Fortune! Where Do You Buy Yours?

milliebear00001

We do Clarks, but I really think the fitting depends on the quality of the staff in a specific store. I have received middling fitting from Clarks, but have now found a reliable branch that I go to every time. I have had feet measured (to Clarks specification) in Brantano and been told my son's previously G width feet were now an E! I've also had good service from Startrite but I find their shoes a bit clunky personally!

jellyhead

I bought in Brantano 2 weeks ago, hush puppies. That day he fell down the stairs and got bad concussion. He was allowed to leave hospital after 24 hours because his walking didn't seem too wobbly - because he was barefoot. After a week he was still falling over and the GP told me to check his shoes.

Clarkes said they couldn't really advise me about another brand, but the shoes they would have fitted him with if we'd gone to them were a centimetre shorter and didn't have a gap around the heel, ho hum ...

clarkes next time for us!

fuzzgun19

wookie74 wrote: »

I've bought from Wynsors, they've got stores in the North and pretty much cheap shoes, boots, sandals and wellies for all ages. Found some really cool boys spiderman trainers which he loves. You can buy online off their site - Very impressed with the prices and would be surprised if you could find shoes any cheaper. Quality seems good too.

Thanks for that, I'm thinking of buying these from Wynsors, just need a cheap pair for DS.
Was wondering about quality though, as got some for ds from Matalan and they started falling apart after about 2 weeks!

http://www.wynsors.com/explode-p-14811:152a0e4d88c1035ae5b52e03ad93b259.html

shelovestobuystuff

The cheap little independant shoe shops sometimes stock a lovely brand called 'walkright' which are leather and have good sensible styles and soles,pretty ones too such as little white leather full sandals with pink leather flower decoration.Very hardwearing too.Those are as good as Clarks or Startright but are only about £10 a pair.
Another very good brand is 'Birthdays' stocked at hush puppy/saxone,again very good shoes and about £10-15 a pair.
The best school shoes I ever bought DD were leather ones with a sensible design and pretty floral decoration from asda,in the 75% off sale for less than £3 a pair.I bought loads of those,4 pairs in different sizes, and if the dogs had not chewed the straps off the last pair she would still be in them.
The worst shoes I have bought are Next shoes as although the designs are good I find the leather is so very thin that the school shoes are scuffed to the grey skin at the front within a couple of days.

shelovestobuystuff

wookie74 wrote: »

I've bought from Wynsors, they've got stores in the North and pretty much cheap shoes, boots, sandals and wellies for all ages. Found some really cool boys spiderman trainers which he loves. You can buy online off their site - Very impressed with the prices and would be surprised if you could find shoes any cheaper. Quality seems good too.

Thanks for that.I have saved it as a favourite link on my PC to shop there next time we need shoes.They look good and very nice prices too.

Violetta_2

demonicangel wrote: »

Funny that, I emailed them about the lack of D widths last week, they said they had no plans to make any as they made losses on them before.

My dd is a D width at 3 years old, very slim and narrow feet and getting shoes for her is a nightmare!

I wished they would make D widths and at least more E width styles. We get bored of the same styles all the time, and they are never that nice!

They have D width online & you can collect instore . My dd has wide feet & it's a nightmare too.

carolinosourus

jellyhead wrote: »

Both of my boys have had fat wife feet with high instep, and Clarks have been the only shoes I could find to fit them

I find it really interesting that you say that, not doubting you at all, but when I was little I always had to have Start-rite because my feet were so wide and couldn't fit into Clarks! I used to hate it because in the summer all my friends were in those lovely black Clarks ones with the keyholes (don't know if they still do them or anyone remembers them) and I had to have these horrific blue clumpy awful things... I tried to avoid wearing them as often as possible, I was so jealous of all my friends and I think it's scarred me for life because I have a thing about shoes now, they have to be pretty and not clumpy!

Sorry I don't have anything constructive to add, but if you get a strong-willed child a pair of shoes they hate, they'll do anything to avoid wearing them!

Janepig

Violetta wrote: »

They have D width online & you can collect instore . My dd has wide feet & it's a nightmare too.

Unfortunately they start at 10 and my dd is size 9.5. Her feet don't seem too abnormally narrow to me, but any "open-top" styles are a dead loss for her as they gape at the sides. She seems to spend most of her life in crocs or trainers now.

Jxx

lolababy

I have just bought a pair of shoes from clarks for my six year old. I also buy new from ebay and so far have not had any problems. I find that hushpuppies are a really good buy as they are well made and cushioned inside. Lots of sellers give advice on the width of shoes ie size f ect. You will find startright, clarks and lots of top brands at a fraction of the price.

anonymousie

kjmtidea wrote: »

I have 4 children and have always bought their shoes from Clarks but in the past 2 weeks they have wrongly fitted shoes for 2 of my children, 1 of them ended up with blisters. So I definitely won't be going to Clarks anymore, there is another shop in town that sells Clarkes, Start Rite etc so I will give there a try I think.

Much better to use an independent shop that stocks several brands.

My kids are big now so it is easy to fit them myself (16yrs of watch the fitters and gettign them to talk me through what they are check has been interesting- both educational and a good tool to know when to walk out from clarks when they are trying to fir something that looks like a boatjust because the machine said an H width- yes, but you shouldn't be able to get a finger down the SIDE of the shoe:rotfl:).

Still get DD2s school shoes from Gordon Scott- indep shop- mostly get startrite and get amazing service if there are ever any problems.:T