Childrens shoe fitting?

[Jon-and-Lou]

Hi, 7 months in, and our 2 year old daughter has outgrown her old winter shoes, and her sandals are not warm enough.

Is there such a thing as foot measuring and shoe fitting akin to Clarks shoe shops in the UK?

and if so, any recommendations for shops in or around Christchurch please?

[peebles16]

There has been another thread about this but upshot is not much choice around. There is a shop in Bishopdale that does stock Clarks shoes but the don't seem to measure feet in the same way here just to warn you I can't remember the name of the shop but I'll have a search around cos I'm sure I kept their card

Karenx

[YouMeAndThree]

I've been to stores which don't even have size gauges, merely a Thomas the Tank floor mat with outlines of various size feet

If you need to do the fitting for yourself, you will find loads of information including video guides from the Startrite website.

[Kerry and David]

Future Feet in Auckland sell Clarks and offer a postage service, this link shows how they decide on the correct shoe

http://www.futurefeet.co.nz/Shop+Online.html

Will see if I can find some more links.

[Sam B]

Why is this then? Are we just over-obsessed with the perfect shoe fitting in the UK and conned by the propaganda put out by Clarks, or are all NZ children wearing badly fitted shoes and damaging their feet? Is there a podiatrist out there who knows if it matters?

[Kerry and David]

I don't know if this may be of use

http://www.instepfootwear.co.nz

[Georgebulldog]

Why is this then? Are we just over-obsessed with the perfect shoe fitting in the UK and conned by the propaganda put out by Clarks, or are all NZ children wearing badly fitted shoes and damaging their feet? Is there a podiatrist out there who knows if it matters?

This is what I'm starting to wonder, I'm now quite obsessed by getting the right fitting shoe & paid a fortune for Clarks here but you may notice that in some shops there are only 1 width fitting, I did manage to get my dd fitted but only length & I feel I need to stop trying for anything more than that, she still insists on wearing sandels even now

[Tanya]

We also use Instep in Bishopdale - they do stock a few smaller widths and can often get some Clarks in from OZ if you are prepared to wait!

We have ended up going for a brand called McKinleys for DD as her feet are very narrow and they are a narrower shoe. For my son he also has a narrow foot,we buy him Clarks but its a black Clark school shoe which looks like a trainer - they fit him so much better and are a bit more robust when it comes to kicking balls at school compared to a traditional shoe!

HTH

Tanya

[spudulike]

I had this problem when in NZ too and was told there was good reason NZ has so many podiatrists! UK aren't obsessed with well fitting shoes, it's because the 26 bones in the feet don't harden until you're 18-21. They damage and bend very easily and can cause lots of problems in later life. I found a shop in Wellington that measured although still tried to sell me shoes that were too big to get my money's worth! I used my own judgement and bought clarke's shoes (or similar) in that shop as I had an idea by that point which shoes fitted their feet.

Sorry, not much help but can understand where you're coming from!

L

[YouMeAndThree]

We've never found a Clarks shoe to fit DD1 - so I've never been a fan. I do struggle getting winter shoes fitted compared to summer sandles for her high arched, very narrow heeled feet.

No hobbit feet in this house