Toddler Shoes... My Gripe

Why is it that all toddler shoes are stoopid velcro. Do shoe makers not understand that children who are just over the age of 1 and really like exploring, and do not like shoes on, but need shoes for park and shopping, are very adept at velcro and no sooner as shoes are on, they are off, and that is a good game??????????? I can understand velcro for an older kid, but for a toddler?

In a shoe store on the weekend, when I wanted to get some summer sandals for DS, to break in now with sox at home before it gets hot and he needs then at day care, there were 2 pairs with buckles, and one of them had a velcro bit at the top to adjust for toes, so not suitable...

And when we needed to get late winter shoes as DS had outgrown his there were, again, two pairs of lace ups to choose from, and one was out of his size... See a pattern here??? And you know what, I am a mum who LOVES her shoes, and I hate the fact that I am not given a choice for DS. I want him to have nice shoes, not just the only ones that suit wrt buckles and laces...

Am I shopping in the wrong places? Or am I not normal in my needs?

And while I am at it, can anyone explain the inequality in choice for boys and girls, not only in shoes, but in clothing too... Please dont get me started on that topic....

Am I the only one who find this really hard?

Ok...rant over... i just needed to get that out..:redface:

I agree with you soooooooooooooooo strongly.. esp about the choice (and esp for girls)
I went to ecco on the weekend to get DS shoes and there ended up ONE choice... there were about 20 suitable pairs of girly shoes. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I agree too. It's ridiculous!

We're not quite up to the shoe stage, but I think you're entirely normal, Rufalina. I'm so thoroughly sick of trying to go shopping for Sam's clothing and finding rack upon rack of stuff for girls and maybe half a rack for boys. And there's just no variety - it's all ugly!

Makes me want to get the sewing machine out...

BW

I LOATHE velcro!!! So I totally agree. I rarely buy shoes with velcro and only do as a complete last resort. Whenever I am in shoe shops I make a point of saying how much I hate shoes with velcro for the exact reasons you gave plus i find that it doesn't last as long as a buckle... all manner of lint and fluff get in it... i know I could pull it out a bit but that's not the point... and it looks shocking... so cheap and nasty. Shop assistants think I'm crazy... they assure me that all mums prefer the convenience of velcro these days (ppppft!) because it's faster and gives the child independence. Well that's all very well and good but at the end of te day it's also cheaper to install than a good quality buckle so I remain suspicious and refuse to be converted.

Start-Rite are a good brand of childrens' shoe that have largely avoided velcro. I have also found Gro-Shu to be good for buckled sandals as well, and they are nicely lined with leather and have padding around the heel... and are reasonably priced.

I also prefer lace-ups to velcro.

Thanks all for validating my issues... I am not a totally insane mum... *Phew*

Toddlers love velcro. It is such a game and makes a great noise too. ...RIP... and DS loves scratching his nails on the hard bits... As for laces, I am sure you can teach a child to do them up. I know I learned... When we were growing up (I am going to show my age here) velcro was only for cheap shoes and noone had it... oh except for the cool velcro bit that went over the laces round the ankle on high tops...:redface:

Bath thanks for the recommendations... will look out for them.

yep, in "my day" (when I was a teen) vecro on shoes was kinda embarrassing... it meant they were cheap... that you couldn't afford buckled or lace up shoes.

I agree totally on finding proper boy things. Where I shop all I wanted was a pair of velcro joggers for my son to wear to school.. I have finally found a pair after looking ALL year. all I could find was girls joggers with velcro.

If you look on ebay you will find a heap of shoes for little ones with laces and buckles

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can anyone explain the inequality in choice for boys and girls, not only in shoes, but in clothing too... Please dont get me started on that topic....

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OMG! I so agree with this. And it doesn't even stop at clothing... I was out shopping the other day and I saw these money boxes made from clay - you put coins in and once it's full you smash it open, those sort of things - and I was going to get one for our bubba cos they were just cute(and I'm a sucker ;)). There was a baby pink one that had "My Little Princesses First Money Box" written across it & a plain yellow one. NO BABY BLUE! Humph! So not impressed!!

Or you could try gumboots, DS' choice of the moment...

i agree on the lack of boys clothes but i've also found the boys clothes tend to be more practical/warm. also found that the boys jumpsuits wash up better.

Ruf, totally agree!!! DS has two pairs of lace up shoes. I was lucky and found them on special for $20 each (they are Osh Kosh and were reduced from $70!). Before I got those, I had a really tough time finding a pair of pre-walkers. It was hard enough to find just a pair of plain old dunlop volleys!!

And the clothes, so little choice for boys. Walk into any baby clothes shop, one rack for boys, twenty racks for girls! Ridiculous!

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And the clothes, so little choice for boys. Walk into any baby clothes shop, one rack for boys, twenty racks for girls! Ridiculous!

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Now see i find this a good thing cause I have no interest in clothes and just find the vast selection for girls too daunting...

There's something to be said for that marcellus LOL I know what you mean... I am so over shopping for my DD... my sons will wear anything... a much healthier attitude I think! Each to their own though.

I do wonder, though, if boys wear just anything because they have no choice... or is it simply a boy thing that they don't really care?

BW

I must be shopping in different shops to everyone else because I've never noticed a huge difference in the choices available for boys. TBH I'm not sure that rack after rack of frilly pink should really be regarded as choice anyway. It's like giving my boys a choice between apples or bananas - they think they have a choice but really they can only have fruit.

ETA - No way in hell will my boys wear anything. Yasin loathes brown and isn't too enthusiastic about the other earth colours.

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TBH I'm not sure that rack after rack of frilly pink should really be regarded as choice anyway.

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Here here!! Girls clothes are actually a lot harder to get than you'd think, unless you want pink pink & more pink. That said if you are into pink there is definitely a greater variety for boys than girls.

And yep I hear ya on the velcro, J has her shoes undone in three seconds these days!

i refused to buy velcro shoes for DD1 until this winter when i bought some sneakers with velcro, for the exact reasons you stated!! she always has buckles for sandles try looking online.....

just checked betts kids and they have one pair of boys that are buckle

We bought some sandals for Jazz, cos she loves to run around the park these days, and I didn't think, bought the velcro, and within 5 minutes of putting them on I heard *RIP* giggle giggle giggle, and over the side of the pram they went :doh:

A lot of that so called vast choice of girls clothes are ridiculously impractical, don't wash well, and don't get me started on the inappropriate slogans/pictures that many of them have. I often buy plain boys clothes and mix and match them in with 'girls' clothes, just because they wear better and last longer and often are cheaper.

The grass is always greener I guess.

Apparently there was some sort of population boom the year my DD was born because there are *never* any of the thing I want in her size - dozens of the size bigger and smaller but none in the right size.

Marydean, there was also a HUGE boom in boys around when Sam was born, too. I can always find stuff smaller or larger, but hardly ever in his size!

BW

Oh sizes... my local store has NO size 0 or 1 boys clothes at all...

Interesting to hear that mums of girls feel the same about choice. I guess I just look at the vast racks and see variety, but I have not delved into them to see really what is on offer.

Well, I love Velcro. DS can put his own shoes on now. (OK wrong feet every time but he can do it.) Laces were a nightmare. Took five times as long to get him into his lace-up shoes as it did his velcro ones.

DS is another fussy clothes boy. I find things from mothercare are generally not so pink for girls and DS-friendly in colours. Can you shop online from the UK? Or am I unhelpful here?

No reason one can't shop online from the UK. I usually buy from the US because the exchange rate means I get better value for money. The differance in seasons means that I can get the stuff that is on special because it was made for the previous season so even with postage I end up getting great quality stuff for the same price as dodgy quality here. Gymboree has great sales and overstock and sierra trading often have great bargains too.

I'm a bit of a fan of velcro too - saves me from tying laces lol.
My children don't wear shoes a minute more than I can help it I think it's better for their feet to be barefoot so long as they aren't running about anywhere that they might injure their feet.

ETA - I also buy lots of clothes second hand on ebay and after reading about CO2 emissions caused by manufacturing clothing yesterday I'm planning to buy more second hand from ebay and op-shops (the article was in an inflight magazine - I wonder if they appreciated the irony lol)

I buy alot of clothes from ebay too....so much more variety than i can find locally and much cheaper too!! I got a snoopy tracksuit for a couple of bucks and it looked brand new!!!

I did notice in my local dept. store the girls tracksuits pants were reduced to half price and there was plenty to choose from...nothing reduced for boys and hardly anything in DS's size....so sssshhhh dont tell hubby, I bought a heap of the most non-girlie looking pants I could find hehehe :)

Velcro on shoes does seem like a PITA....my DS is only 6 months but already loves that riiippp sound of taking off his own nappy lol god help me when we have shoes!!! And speaking of nappies.....it bugs me how clothes are mainly sold in "sets" I like to buy a size up in pants to fit his cloth bum and also hes got pretty long legs...but an up size top swims on him!! Whatever happened to the good ole mix n match that wasnt just totally plain!!!

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A lot of that so called vast choice of girls clothes are ridiculously impractical, don't wash well, and don't get me started on the inappropriate slogans/pictures that many of them have. I often buy plain boys clothes and mix and match them in with 'girls' clothes, just because they wear better and last longer and often are cheaper.

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:yeahthat:
All of the girls things i have bought are now stretched/distorted/pilling especially the sleeves. No idea what i'm going to do when she starts crawling. Well i guess it might be in summer so let her be naked?

lol Helen, I buy stuff from the girl's section all the time. We use the Big W trackie pants as PJ bottoms for winter and the girl's ones fit my skinny boys perfectly while the boy's ones fall down.
Tights too - they're great for putting under shorts when the seasons are turning but they only sell them in the girl's section.

I work as a manager in a large Sports Store, and have had many conversations with companies such as Nike, Puma etc as to the sizing and styles of infant/toddler shoes...so I can give you the major reasons as to why many shoe manufacturers make shoes in Velcro. After receiving copious amounts of complaints from customers, I made it a point of passing on the 'feedback' and constantly received the same answers (excuses) over and over again -
1. Young children scrunch their toes up, so Velcro allows the shoe to be easily opened-up by the parent to make sure the child's foot is properly sitting in the shoe. (They put this down to convenience)
2. It is hard for the manufacturers to accommodate all widths/depths (chubbiness) of childrens feet and Velcro is more forgiving and easier to fit around a young childs foot than lacing - lacing actually makes the shoe shallower, putting alot of pressure on the top of a childs foot and making the shoe gape (or have too much of a gap) across the top of the shoe. (They put this down to ensuring a better fit - I say it's because they can't be bothered to provide a range of different fitting styles like they provide adults with)

All in all, I find these to be excuses and have repeatedly told them so! Lachlan is 4mths old now, and I am dreading getting him shoes (and I work in the industry!), your frustrations are best put to good use by writing to the companies and telling them what you think (nobody likes negative feedback), and maybe (just maybe) with enough demand (and by going direct to the manufacturer) we might find that they realise that they could make some serious $ out of providing more appropriate footwear for infants/toddlers. Oh and also please try not to take your frustrations out on the salespeople, they don't have any say in the matter, the managers do the purchasing - and we can only buy what is available to us :)

Alternatively you can just throw them out
Parents for Barefoot Children

:lol: at the inflight mag Pony!!!!

I am for the no shoes too! My kids school encourages bare feet where there is no danger of injury. It's important for their little feet and also for their motor skills I believe...

I am all for the recycled clothing thing too. It is definitely worth switching over where you can to reduce our FOOT (get it!!! :lol:) print on the Earth...

I have to say I LOVE velcro as they get older - saves all the lace tying. But on babies and toddlers nah...

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lol Helen, I buy stuff from the girl's section all the time. We use the Big W trackie pants as PJ bottoms for winter and the girl's ones fit my skinny boys perfectly while the boy's ones fall down.
Tights too - they're great for putting under shorts when the seasons are turning but they only sell them in the girl's section.

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That reminds me...DS desperately needed more winter pj's...BigW had the one piece suit things for $13.....or flanny pj's on clearance for $3, no boys ones ofcourse.....so DS now has gorgeous pairs of fairy and crazy flower pj's....hubby actually lets him wear them...so long as we dont have visitors lol :)

Ruf I'm not sure if you solved your shoe problem in the end but Kmart have some really cute boy's lace up sneakers in toddler sizes... I nearly bought a pair for DD (blue check converse style sneakers) but they didn't have her size. They are having a 25% off sale at the moment if you have one nearby :)

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And while I am at it, can anyone explain the inequality in choice for boys and girls, not only in shoes, but in clothing too... Please dont get me started on that topic....

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Really? I have no trouble finding funky items for my little man. Most everyday stuff is from Target but I also buy from Fred Bare and Country Road (the spend and save offers are fantastic!). I'm not a fan of Pumpkin Patch as I don't like logos and writing over each piece of clothing. My sister lives OS and buys a lot of Gap and Benetton for him also which wears very well.

Ruf, there are a couple of good factory outlet stores at DFO at Homebush. I always got DD's shoes there when she was littler. And I bought both velcro and non-velcro, depending on the intention. Preschool always got the velcro shoes! ;) You tend to find that the more expensive brands seem to make good shoes for kids that include buckles and laces, but I shudder at the usual prices. Lately we've found what we want at DJs and Myers when they have their throw-out sales at the end of season. I always buy the sizes ahead and a few staples for each size, so it doesn't bother me what season the sale is for. And my tip is if you find a shoe that's perfect, buy it in the next size or two as well, 'cause there's no way you'll ever find it again!

(We encourage bare feet at home too and I did get second-hand shoes from my Mum whose foster-daughter has CP and didn't walk for quite a while. But I'm very reluctant to go second-hand shoes otherwise, my DD has a very narrow, long foot and only new shoes give her a snug fit. Same as me, so I don't like to take the chance that they come off easily.) As for pink... Can you believe I managed to find a lovely dress for DD for our photo shoot on Sunday that is completely blue! :o