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Poll: Do kids' school shoes cost too much?

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  • lilmiss1982
    lilmiss1982 Posts: 1,405 Forumite
    I've been Money Tipped!
    No
    Depends where you shop.

    I got my kids from Aldi for £7.

    Doesn't matter how much I pay the kids ruin them in the same time so opt for the cheapest now.
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  • Fireflyaway
    Fireflyaway Posts: 2,766 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 1,000 Posts
    Depends where you buy them, You can get a cheap supermarket pair for £8 or an expensive Clarks one for £40.

    I don't think shoes are made as tough as they used to be. My daughter normally needs new shoes not because she has outgrown them but because they start to fall apart!
  • I always bought the very best I could afford for my DD, and ensured her feet were properly measured at regular intervals.

    School shoes might seem expensive, but little ones are spending around 6 hours a day wearing them, five days a week, so the 'per wear' cost works out to be quite reasonable.

    Also their feet have to last a lifetime. So £38 per pair of well fitting, good quality shoes seems like a bargain to me.
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  • LilElvis
    LilElvis Posts: 5,835 Forumite
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    Yes
    I always bought the very best I could afford for my DD, and ensured her feet were properly measured at regular intervals.

    School shoes might seem expensive, but little ones are spending around 6 hours a day wearing them, five days a week, so the 'per wear' cost works out to be quite reasonable.

    Also their feet have to last a lifetime. So £38 per pair of well fitting, good quality shoes seems like a bargain to me.

    Very true! As a little girl in the 70s I hated my Mum for making me wear Clarks when I wanted platforms from Freeman Hardy Willis. Then my sister, at age 10, needed an operation for a degenerative bone disease in her foot. The other 2 girls on her ward were only a couple of years older. They both had to have every toe broken and pins inserted so that they stuck out of the end of each toe until they healed - then they were going to be operated on again to remove the pins. They had hammer toes from wearing ill-fitting shoes. I realised then that my Mum was doing the best thing she could by ensuring we wore well made, properly fitted shoes.
  • skylight
    skylight Posts: 10,716 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker Home Insurance Hacker!
    No
    No I don't think they are too expensive - I'm happy to pay £40 a pair for Clarks as they last the kicking, scrapping etc! Besides, I would pay that for my own shoes if I wanted something comfortable and would wear often, so why wouldn't I spend it on my kids for shoes that they will wear 7hrs a day, 5 days a week?
  • bylromarha
    bylromarha Posts: 10,085 Forumite
    I've been Money Tipped!
    I remember starting a similar thread a few years ago. A clarks employee gave us shoe fitting tips and since then, I've been confident to find a well fitting pair of shoes for my kids in any shop rather than the worry that a cheaper pair of shoes not fitted by an expert means I'm ruining my kids feet for life. The "expert fitting" experience is all part of the higher price tag.
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  • morocha
    morocha Posts: 1,554 Forumite
    I also buy the best shoe I can afford for my daughter. I buy her shoes from clarks, they fit the shoes but also provide a guarantee of at least 6 weeks or longer in some cases depending on the manager. It makes sense to have their feet measure.
    We tried M&S and those did not last a month.
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  • Carl31
    Carl31 Posts: 2,616 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Yes
    They are really. I bought a pair of caterpillar boots which lasted years for not much more than a pair of clarks for my 5 year old, and as stated mine had 20% VAT added

    Trouble is, theres not much choice, either buy rubbish every month for the year and end up spending more, or buy a decent pair for £40 along with all the other expenses this time of year. The only decent shoes really are clarks
  • Yes
    I buy Clarks shoes for my son. They are expensive, but I won't buy him cheap shoes and risk his feet not developing properly.

    He tends to need new shoes every three months as his feet grow quickly.
  • jackieblack
    jackieblack Posts: 10,501 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    No
    Kids are baby goats and therefore do not need school shoes :p

    I think you get what you pay for with children's school shoes though, and always bought Clarks for my DD which generally lasted her the school year.
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