What do you look for when you purchase shoes for your children? What are the main features you look for, is it price, durability, functionality or possibly how the company stands behind their product?
For me it's all the above. I have four kids varying from the ages of 6yrs to 10 yrs old which means their growing like crazy. Whenever I purchase footwear for them I must assume that they will only wear that shoes for maybe and I say maybe 18 mo. So my dilemma has always been is it better to buy cheaper shoes that may not make it 3mo with my outdoorsy kids or spend maybe twice as much on a pair of shoes that they will at least outgrow. I prefer the later for a few reasons.
First of all I'm on a tight budget and I can't afford to buy many pairs of shoes for each child. So instead of spending say $16- every few months I decided to spend $40- once a year. Theoretically speaking. Now mind you these are after school shoes, meaning they go to the park, hike, camp and go to the river with these shoes since their school has shoe "guidelines" that must be adhered to. Another factor is how durable they are. I don't know about your kids but mine eat their shoes up! I want a shoe that if it fails I can return for another of the same or something else. Every-ones foot is different and the only way you can find out how they work with your feet is to actually use them, test walking them in the store is really to see if they fit, not how comfortable they are day to day. When looking I always look for practical as well, something that can be worn on hikes, cruising at the mall, playing in the mud or climbing on and over the rocks at the river or for that matter worn in the river
A couple years ago we were lucky to find 4 pairs of Teva's at two different "Dress for Less" locations. This is very, very rare and unlikely that you will ever find any pair of quality sandals this way. I know from experience. But I will say we ONLY paid $9- a pair, that's $36.00 for 4 pairs of shoes. Unfortunately the return/exchange policy at stores like this are not ideal. We also looked through all of my affiliates outlet stores and had no luck. We only found Acorn slippers for around the house during winter, score! Tangents, got to love them. This year was different, we scoured all of the local discount resources only to come up empty handed. So what did we do you ask? We went to one of our favorite stores and had the kids try on pretty much the only shoe I have worn in the last three years other than dress shoes for work. Keen H-2's. Just by coincidence they were having one of their many sales. I love my Keens and my son has ALWAYS wanted a black pair for himself. The selection of colors is nice when having 4 kids. These shoes are durable, cool looking and REI has probably the best return exchange policy known to man. Everyone picked out different colors and walked out grinning ear to ear. Since then they've worn them on every outing we have gone on. What I like about them is when they get dirty we just hose them off, this includes the kids. Just by looking at them you can see that they have protected their feet from injuries any normal shoe/sandal would have allowed, especially when playing in the river with all of the sharp rocks! And that's another feature I wanted, the ability to wear them in water, that is a must for us. And what's comforting to know is they WILL outgrow these shoes before they fail. And when they are unable to wear them anymore they will be able to "hand them down" to someone else whether it's family, friend or a donation to a child who is not as fortunate.
If you have any insight on kids gear please share, we like to hear what works best for you and your family.
Uncle Leo
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