Baby needed a new pair of shoes
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- November
- 27
Is it just me or is $48 too much for sneakers for an 18-month-old? That was the “cheapest” pair at the Stride Rite in Mount Kisco, according to the sales clerk. Yes, I asked her to bring out the cheapest pair. But no, I don’t think I’m cheap when it comes to Pumpkin’s footwear. I just know that she would probably wear the sneakers maybe 10 times before she outgrows them. (Yes, she doesn’t get out that much.)
The reason we were out shopping for shoes was one that all parents can relate to: The shoes I bought this spring are getting tight. I asked my daughter’s pediatrician about shoes at her 18-month checkup, and she warned me not to let salespeople persuade me to buy the stiff, old-fashioned baby shoes we grew up with. Those memories do live on. In fact, my mother has been asking me if Pumpkin needs something more “supportive.” You see, when it comes to everyday footwear in the house, we opt for Robeez (pictured). In case you’re not familiar with this Canadian company, they make supersoft leather shoes with thin suede soles that let early walkers feel the floor beneath their feet. There are other companies with similar products, including Bobux. Target even has a version of its own. The folks at AskDrSears.com suggest buying leather shoes with a thin and flexible sole for beginning walkers. Robeez fits newborns to 4-year-olds.
We fell in love with Robeez when my husband’s college chums sent us a pair after Pumpkin was born. Besides being beyond cute, they stay on and seem comfortable. The price? $26 a pair. That seems reasonable to me, considering she wears these every day in the house in the cooler months. (This summer, we pretty much let her go barefoot inside.) On Friday, we bought her two pairs of Robeez for the winter, a brown-and-pink pair and a purple pair embellished with daisies.
Now that Pumpkin is participating in more excursions in the wider world, we felt she also needed a shoe that could handle pavement and wet surfaces. A sneaker seemed like a good bet. We ended up buying a pair of Oshkosh sneakers at Target for $12.99. I know I’m no expert in shoes, but they really don’t seem that different than the ones that were four times the price at Stride Rite. Am I missing something? Should I — or anyone else — be paying that much for kids’ shoes? If you have bought shoes at Stride Rite, or anywhere else that charges that much, do you feel you have something more for the money? I can see the point of buying more durable shoes once she goes off to preschool, but before then, it seems unnecessary to me.
(While we’re on the topic of shoes: My co-blogger Gayle had a great post in August about the battle to get her boys to wear “real shoes” as opposed to sneakers — along with some funny memories about the shoes her parents made her wear as a kid. It’s worth checking out if you missed it the first time around.)
This entry was posted
on Monday, November 27th, 2006 at 11:28 pm by Julie Moran Alterio.
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Go to Payless or marshalls halprice.
I’m all about Payless and Marshalls especially if you have girls. They are all about quantity, not necessarily quality. Although I have to say Nordstrom isn’t crazy if you know what you are looking for. I just got my daughter a pair of holiday dressy shoes for $21.00.
I don’t have kids, but I couldn’t help thinking about the importance of shoes with good support. Is that important for young ones? Do medical professionals ever recommend getting them custom orthotics or arch supports? I mean, if their bones are malleable and growing so rapidly, it would be a shame to not give them the best foundation possible to develop a well-aligned physique so they don’t develop foot, knee, hip and back problems later in life. (No, I’m not a chiropractor.) Then again, orthotics could be an expensive proposition if they had to be replaced every few months.