School shoes...

[andyoxon]

How did I end up with the task of going into Oxford to trawl for school shoes with the minis?   

Older mini had a new pair of brogues (adult size) in 'Summer' - nothing else would do...
Bought in August - cost £18 (that's good I thought).  Fell apart in mid October...   

They HAVE to be black lace-ups.  Startrites cost about a squillion quid... Ok £40-50.  Though I suppose they last a year.  My last shoes were £30 and still going fine 3-4yrs later.

[urban_biker]

I've almost got used to paying £30-£40 for the boys school shoes and we normally use Startrite. If I get them cheap shoes they only last a term. I get my workshoes for £20 from Tesco though  but mine don't get the same level of wear.

[andyoxon]

Just looked online and I think that Startrites only go up to size 5.5

[why1040]

My mother always put us in shoes from Clarks...lasted the whole year through even with the sort of wear kids give their shoes when worn every day.  When I was nursing, I continued the convention as they REALLY needed to be comfortable, hard-wearing and breathable!   

[urban_biker]

Just looked online and I think that Startrites only go up to size 5.5

Yes - size 6 and up are considered adult shoes. ie full VAT etc. My wife is lucky in having size 5 feet, so can often buy VAT free children's shoes.

[CrinklyLion]

Yes - size 6 and up are considered adult shoes. ie full VAT etc. My wife is lucky in having size 5 feet, so can often buy VAT free children's shoes.

Me too!

I got lucky with the EldestCub's latest pair - £7.99 boots from Aldi that fit him well and he loves.  But it is usually 40-50 quid a pair from the nice shoe shop (with the rocking horse).  We're lucky that the school is spectacularly unfussed about shoe styles, other than asking parents not to leave in the stupid hidden toys in the soles in clarks shoes, so we don't need specific 'school shoes' until the big'un starts secondary.  They only ever have one pair of shoes at a time, plus (usually) a pair of wellies in winter and some sandals if we remember to buy them in summer.  Eldest actually picked some (expensive) sandal-ish shoes last summer and wore them all year - when it rained he walked/rode to school in wellies and changed there.  We also wear shoes until they fall apart!

andyoxon - had you done something very very naughty to deserve the joy of that task?  I reckon successful shoe shopping should always be rewarded.  Ice cream or cake all round when you win, IMO.  If not both 

 

[andyoxon]

I've already created a rumpus, for suggesting that I won't buy these...
http://www.clarks.co.uk/find/product-is-20343016  because they're very similar (low heel) to the others which wore away (admittedly not Clarks)...

"I told Mum that you'd want to get me chunky heels" in best 13 yro grump...

She doesn't like these... (£50)
http://www.clarks.co.uk/find/keyword-is-hamble+oak/product-is-20346713

 

I thinking that I may leave it until we're all in Scarbs in a couple of days... 

[arabella]

Never had Startrite though my mum used to buy them for us.
My 2 have Clarks until:
taller guy had a new pair at the beginning of last year and they didn't last all year, once the harder outer plastic is worn then the spongy stuff doesn't last at all.  He is currently in a cheap pair his dad bought at less than 1/4 of the price and have lasted more than 1/4 as long - it's the uppers that look dodgy, the soles are fine.  I suppose I could insist he clean them...
So I don't think we'll bother with Clarks for him any more.  They don't make them wide enough anyway which is one of the reasons he is width I/J I think, or would be if it existed. 

Don't DMs do plain black laceups?  I had a brown pair once (age twenty five) but my feet are bigger now and they no longer fit.

[andyoxon]

Never had Startrite though my mum used to buy them for us.
My 2 have Clarks until:
taller guy had a new pair at the beginning of last year and they didn't last all year, once the harder outer plastic is worn then the spongy stuff doesn't last at all.  He is currently in a cheap pair his dad bought at less than 1/4 of the price and have lasted more than 1/4 as long - it's the uppers that look dodgy, the soles are fine.  I suppose I could insist he clean them...
So I don't think we'll bother with Clarks for him any more.  They don't make them wide enough anyway which is one of the reasons he is width I/J I think, or would be if it existed. 

Don't DMs do plain black laceups?  I had a brown pair once (age twenty five) but my feet are bigger now and they no longer fit.

Thanks, DMs way too chunky... (apparently)

[andyoxon]

Just looked online and I think that Startrites only go up to size 5.5

Yes - size 6 and up are considered adult shoes. ie full VAT etc. My wife is lucky in having size 5 feet, so can often buy VAT free children's shoes.

Yes, mrs ao is size 5-5.5 and has already used (on the odd occasion) some of older mini's shoes...  It seems mini ao has a few of my 'size 11' gene variants.

[Jacomus]

Never had Startrite though my mum used to buy them for us.
My 2 have Clarks until:
taller guy had a new pair at the beginning of last year and they didn't last all year, once the harder outer plastic is worn then the spongy stuff doesn't last at all.  He is currently in a cheap pair his dad bought at less than 1/4 of the price and have lasted more than 1/4 as long - it's the uppers that look dodgy, the soles are fine.  I suppose I could insist he clean them...
So I don't think we'll bother with Clarks for him any more.  They don't make them wide enough anyway which is one of the reasons he is width I/J I think, or would be if it existed. 

Don't DMs do plain black laceups?  I had a brown pair once (age twenty five) but my feet are bigger now and they no longer fit.

Thanks, DMs way too chunky... (apparently)

It may be worth looking again, if she hasn't looked for some time. They have a huge range now (Miss Emily has 3 pairs of DMs for work!).

They are eye wateringly expensive, but are built to outlast nuclear holocaust. Obviously, this doesn't help too much if she grows out of them before the bombs start dropping.

[barakta]

Ugh shoe shopping.  I remember "decent" shoes costing £30 or £40 back in the early 90s because anything cheaper didn't fit me.  I have H width or off the chart width feet. Even Clarkes or Startrite didn't work well and fell to bits in under 6 weeks.  Mum was most pissed off when two pairs of £40 shoes fell apart in less than 6 weeks.

At age 13 I discovered school didn't notice if I wore docs, so I moved into docs and never looked back.  they cost £40 a pair but lasted up to 2 years of every day heavy wear and I walk funny so would always wreck the heels before anything else went.  My docs could be resoled for £15 and get another year's wear from them. If anyone did give me shit I'd point out that I couldn't walk in anything else and they were welcome to take me shoe shopping.

I wear hiking boots to work, even when I worked for a corporate bank I wore hiking boots, I could not even in London find shoes which fit, provided ankle support, were comfortable and that were "smart".  Almost all women's smart shoes have a heel or they narrow at the heel so Ugh.

[andyoxon]

Ok shoe trip...

Barratts...walking in with two daughters.
"we're after some school shoes, black lace-ups"
"For boy or girl?"
<resisted the temptation to say - take a wild guess>
Absolutely no lace-ups.

M&S - nothing at all suitable.

Russ & Brom
"we have some brogues with a decent heel just come in"
<unpacking them>
"how much are they?"
"£69.99"
'erm - thanks but no thanks'

Debenhams - nothing suitable.

Clarks- only two (those mentioned above)
Ladies brogues - have a very soft sole.
Went for the  http://www.clarks.co.uk/find/product-is-20343016 at least £42 - hope they last.  I don't like the heel, but hey ho.  Mini happy at least.

Almost feel like writing to the school to moan about the lace-ups compulsion...

[barakta]

Why do they require lace ups?

That could be indirectly discriminatory against disabled students and is utterly pointless. I couldn't do laces till my teens so had buckle shoes.... 

Then again I think most school uniform policies are utter power mongering and pointless and money shedding rubbish!

[andyoxon]

Mrs ao has just said the school lace-upshoe requirement is soley to do with elf n'safety... so they don't drop, y'know, Phenol/Conc HCl-Nitric mixes/HF/alien acid blood on their uncovered feet during lab practicals.  However this does seem an almost pointless measure as for one they hardly do any 'wet' practical work at all. 

[rogerzilla]

Buy from a decent shop and, if they fall apart in six weeks, take them back.  Not of merchantable quality.  We have done this successfully.

[andyoxon]

Buy from a decent shop and, if they fall apart in six weeks, take them back.  Not of merchantable quality.  We have done this successfully.

I thought about that, but she wore the thin non-rubbery heel down slightly on one side and then somehow managed to rub a hole through the slightly too thin back-upper.  Perhaps that's just £18 'fashion' brogues for you.  But if I can dig out the receipt it may be worth a trip back to the shop.

[Regulator]

We always used to be bought 'Charlie Blacks', which were like mini Doc Martens, for school.

When nursing, DMs were the shoe of choice.  Comfortable and robust.

[Kim]

Are schools still in the habit of banning Docs because "you might kick people with them"?  That particular triumph of illogic was a major bugbear of mine.   

[Greenbank]

Are schools still in the habit of banning Docs because "you might kick people with them"?  That particular triumph of illogic was a major bugbear of mine.   

They tried that when I was at secondary school under the misguided impression that all DMs had steel toe-caps (and therefore would be very useful for kicking people). I just invited them to check that mine didn't have steel toe-caps and they left me alone.

[Tewdric]

My Docs phase didn't last long but I found that the simple expedient of putting black boot polish on the give-away yellow welt stitching meant no questions were ever asked.

[hellymedic]

Girls' feet attain adult sizes at around 12 and may stop growing at around 14.
I lurve my Ecco AlsoSoft lace-ups. They are not cheap (I think they're £60 per pair at present) but last a long time. I have had these shoes in various shades since 1987.
There is an Ecco shop in Oxford.
This post may seriously damage your bank balance.

[rwa.martin]

12 year old son with size 11 feet. The only decent quality shoes that we could find that was the right width for him were £80. He's under strict orders to look after them and he's polishing them every day.....

[Julian]

I had a pair of Clarks boys' lace up shoes to wear to court (my double jointed knees don't get on with heels, see also: walking like a pig in stilts).  They were £30 and lasted 3 years.  My new ones are Clarks' girls' shoes.  Yay for size 4 feet

[barakta]

Gah yes.  I had size 5 feet aged 10.  I'm now a 5.5-7 depending on the width/manufacturer.