Shoes, shoes, and more shoes

It is that time of year when hassled parents and reluctant kids hit the shops to purchase the new school uniform for their kids. It is both stressful and expensive, and with 3 kids, the part I dread most is the school shoes.

Fortunately the only requirement is that they are black and fairly sensible!

As a teenager my school had a set list of about 4 actual make and styles which were “approved” by the school and usually 3 of the 4 were hideous in our eyes, so the quest was on to get your shoes before they ran out of your size and width – my daughters were horrified when I told them of this.  However I always remember they were always Clarks shoes, and today I still prefer to buy Clarks school shoes.

As a mummy blogger I was offered the chance to review the Clarks childrens fitting service, and was given a £50 voucher towards the purchases.

While my girls are most interested in the styles, and my son in the lights, the fit is the most important to me.  Each child was measured for length and width, styles selected, fit checked for growing room, gaps on the top (note my technical expertise), the inevitable “wee walk around the shop” and then a check of the heel for any slippage.

You can view the Clarks 6 steps to fitting below

 

On our quest, as you can imagine, may shoes were tried, rejected, hummed and hahhed about, and these were the final winners

My 12 year old chose these – suitable unfussy, No Jolie

My 10 year old finally chose these Daisy Wish  shoes, however within minutes of arriving home she had immediately doctored the shoes to remove the “fussy bits”. Let’s just say she knows her own mind …. wonder who she takes that after?!!

You can see what they did look like BEFORE she altered them here

There was no contest when it came to my son – once he spotted the flashing lights with the
have an on/off button “so they don’t use up all their energy” he was sold on the Nano Lights!

As always, there are always some additional new shoes required, and in this case my son also got some flashing trainers (notice a theme here?).

Thanks to Clarks, for their helpful staff and the opportunity to share a review of their fitting service.

So how do YOU find shopping for shoes?