Infants first "walking" shoes

Colin_Kee

Just a bit of a query regarding the first "walking" shoes for young babies/children.
We have bought little shoes for our little girl from the likes of Tesco, TK MAXX, Matalan and the rest but these are more just dressy shoes (not much to them really) and are usually about £5 at the very most. My wife and I were looking in Clarkes the other day at First Walking shoes for young children and couldn't believe the price of them. £20 minimum... My wife and I were both shocked. The last pair od shoes I bought cost £20.. how can it be that they are so expensive or is it just that they are Clarkes? I cannot see how to justify spending this sort of money when they will only last a few months at best what with the rate childrens feet grow at this early age. I realise as they're starting to walk they need a bit more support etc however I have read a few articles most of which said shoes were not necessarily required indoors when children start to walk so as not to restrict the foots normal growth. They all suggested having the childs feet re-measured every few months as with childrens feet its easy to squeeze them into shoes that are actually to small which can do them damage. this could mean 5 or 6 pairs of shoes a year (£120 on baby's shoes.) I suppose as usual "you get what you pay for" but if they're only going to last for a few months, I'd preferr to pay less..

Do you really need these more expensive shoes or is it OK to use the cheaper ones :question:


PS On another subject, anyone else noticed that since SMA introduced their "NEW FORMULA" the price has gone up about 40 or 50p for the large tubs? cheeky barstewards!! :mad: They didn't advertise that when they were advertising their new formula in the old tubs!!

nickiboop

Sorry but you do need to buy the expensive shoes when your little girl, apparently if you only use the cheaper ones it can cause probs in later life(someone more intelligent may explain!) however if you can get to a clarkes outlet you can get a good reduction, we only paid £12 for our little mans first shoes

Badger_Lady

I used to work at Clarkes years ago (left over 6 years ago and have no further association with the company!).

You're right - it is an extraordinary amount of money to spend on something that won't last five minutes... but, according to my old training, when your child starts to walk and buys her first pair of proper shoes, it is an important part of developing her foot.

Clarke's "First Walker" shoes (and I believe Russell and Bromley does an equivalent range) are specialist made to help shape the child's foot and support their development as they start to build up different muscles in walking.

The salespeople in the children's section of Clarke's should also be very thoroughly trained in fitting the shoes to make sure you choose something that helps, not damages the child's foot. In my day, you were not allowed to fit small children until you had reached a satisfactory level of experience and very specific training.

I'm not an expert in this area, so I don't know what the effect of cheaper shoes would be... I only know that there are very few companies that make these kind of child's shoe and they generally are around £20.

Belair

These "walking shoes" were not around when me and my siblings were learning to walk and our feet are fine. My mother let us either go barefoot or just wear socks.

Nenen

Although I have never had any profit-making connection to Clarks, we always bought Clarks shoes for our three children (now aged late teens-early twenties) when they were little because we believed (and still do) that they were the best available for growing feet. The bones in a child's foot are not properly formed until they are about eight years old and are easily damaged by poorly fitting shoes.

Clarks are one of the few shops that does half sizes and different width fittings in many different combinations to ensure the best possible fit. They also, IMHO, have the best trained staff for measuring children's feet to ensure they get the correct size. Invariably they were very kind and patient with our children and really helpful. From memory, I think Clarks used to say a pair of their well-fitted shoes should last at least 3 months (in our experience it was usually 4-5 months). So you shouldn't have to buy more than 3 or 4 pairs in a year.

The other good thing about Clarks we found (and according to their website this is still true today) is that Clarks are more than happy for you to go and get your child's feet measured and they will tell you honestly if they need the next size or not, without puttting any sales pressure on you to buy. Several times we were told to wait another 6-8 weeks and come back for another re-measure as they didn't need new shoes yet. They were also excellent about replacing any shoes that didn't last at least 3 months even with schoolboys who are notoriously tough on shoes! :eek:

I know it seems really expensive for such tiny shoes... I think the cost is related to the careful workmanship and quality rather than size of shoe... and there are many people who just cannot afford them but personally, if I could possibly afford Clarks shoes for my children then I would definitely buy them. I'd rather skimp on clothes than shoes! You can also wait for sales bargains (I think their summer sale is on at the moment)although we found that our dd was such an odd size they rarely had her size in the sales.

You could have a look on their website www.clarks.co.uk for more info.

Don't forget to keep her first pair of shoes.... they are a really precious momento in years to come.... certainly my 2 sons who now have hulking size 11 & 12 feet LOL when they see their first shoes!
HTH

Quackers

Hi,

I do work for Clarks so may be biased in my opinion - just thought I'd let you know!

A fully developed foot has 26 bones. These are not all there until the age of 5 & even then are still not full developed. A babies foot has no fully formed bones at all. They are like a soft 'cartlidge' until they develop properly. It may not be called cartlidge - I might be wrong on that bit!

If your child is put in poorly fitted shoes whilst the foot is developing & growing there are many things that could go wrong.

Shoes too small will cause the foot to be squashed so bones will be deformed - may also cause bunions. This is also the case for shoes which are too narrow.

If shoes are too big then your child may develop 'claw toes' - the child will 'claw' their toes to keep the shoes on.

There are lots of things that can go wrong with little ones feet & its important to look after them.

Good fitting shoes are important - maybe I'm brainwashed :rotfl:

They dont have to be from Clarks though - there are other stores that fit them. Do you have Brantanos? Lots of towns have independant shoe shops that fit childrens shoes.

On average the first couple of pairs only last 6-8 weeks :eek: but as another poster says you can pop back to where you got them from and they will check them for you for free. If your child doesn't need new shoes Clarks will NOT sell you any. Their aim is to ensure you get a good fitting pair of shoes which last until your child needs a new pair. The average time for a pair of shoes to last is 3months. As others have said if your little on doesn't grow you may get longer - 4-6months.

My daughter had a pair of shoes for 1yr. This was when she was about 8 though - their feet grow slower as they get older. Just like everything else they go through growth spurts.

OMG - I'm waffling now

Lots of people have their first few pairs from Clarks and pick up hints and tips from the sales assistants on how shoes should fit. Others buy ALL of their childrens shoes from Clarks - especially if they had badly fitted shoes as a child and have terrible feet as a result.

Its all down to personal choice and it doesn't matter where you buy them as long as they have a little growing room & are not tight on the width. Oh, and they should not slip when they walk either - yukky blisters!

kyral

I was in a Clarks shop today buying 'school shoes'.

Boy age 5 ......size 12....£32
Girl age 9.....size 2.......£32

Hopefully they will get a full school year out of them!

My two have always had a pair of clarks shoes, my daughter however has become more fashionable and runs around in cheap shoes during the summer.
My son only ever has school shoes or trainers on and since he was three I have learnt that a good pair od clarkes fitted trainers (£20ish) lasts three times as long as a pair of cheap £10 jobs!

toffeepennys

having worked as a trained childrens shoe fitter, i can assure you that as long as a shoe is fitted properly it will not damage or harm childrens feet, regardless of price, i know of lots of incidences where incorrectly trained staff in other local stores fitted shoes on feet which where unbeleivably bad fitting because they worked on commission!!!

try a local independant shoe store, the staff will be honest and allow you a choice for your price range, ask about end of line stock and once your child has reached age five always ask can you fit an insole to allow for slightly more room, most staff want to save you money so you come back to them out of respect!

try reids (lisburn, they have an excellent childrens sale shop) - phone the main store to enquire of opening hours,

seatzie

don't be tight mate lol!! spend the money its your child lol........seriously though, its just not worth the risk of buying cheap at this age in my opinion, we've tried other shoe shops but felt that it wasn't worth the risk because in Clarks you can get so many different width fittings, our wee man has gone from an f to a g and a half size up in about 3 months, when we try bog standard stuff on in other shops you can tell they aren't wide enough even though its the "correct size"

have a search on here, there is a thread with reasons why you should stick to Clarks, and also keep an eye out, some of the staff post on here telling you when the sales will start thats how we got our last pair of shoes for him

and lets face it didn't we all love taking a number and standing with our feet in a huge squeezing machine when we were kids?lol