Where Do You Go and What Do You Spend on Shoes for Your Kids?

I buy my kids good shoes but I get 2 uses out of them too. Stride Rite, New Balance, etc. I only buy 1 pair of tennis shoes and 1 pair of casual shoes. The way I look at it...would I be comfortable walking around in cheap shoes myself? Usually they aren't supportive and if my kids feet are still growing and developing, they need good shoes. You can always try Once Upon a Child or Craig's list. The only thing I buy cheaper are slippers or flip flops.

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I never messed around with feet. Those little toes are going to be supporting the kids all their lives.

Stride Rite, all the way for little ones, fit by a professional. They were expensive, but I looked at it as life insurance.

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For me, good shoes for my kids are important, they don't need to be expensive but I look for comfortable shoes, with some padding, a little arch, soft without rough spots inside, etc.
When my oldest was a toddler she had a problem on her feet where she would walk with her feet pointing a lot inside, the doctor (back on Mexico) send her special pair of shoes that she must wear everyday, expensive shoes too.
She also had complete flat food.
When we move here (US) the new doctor ditch the shoes and just gave us a special part to put on any shoes but recommend us to buy a good pair.
All since then it just became a habit.
I think kids are so much time on their feet (a lot more then I do) so I want them to have a good pair, I actually have my kids wearing a $4 shirt with a $35 Clarks shoes.
I guess I am lucky because she use them for 6-9 months.
My favorite ones are Clarks and Born, but I have found some good shoes in Stride Rite too.

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WOW I guess I am not the only one! I buy my son & Daughters shoes at Stride Rite because he needs wide she needs narrow. The 1/2 size up works well but also they have a great clearance section where you can buy shoes for $10 and less sometimes cause they are “off season”. I tend to buy them ONLY two pair a piece so they get good use out of them.

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I buy 1 good pair of Stride Rites for each season - so about $50/pair. And then a couple of cheaper pairs at Payless or Target.

My kids burn through shoes in a couple of months. The Stride Rites always last, and I like that they'll fit my kids for them in the store.
The cheapo ones, I could care less.

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when my kids were little I bought the cheapest pair of shoes I could find. I knew they were going to outgrow them more often than they would wear them out (although they did plenty of that too) and I wasn't going to waste money on expensive shoes. I generally bought them at walmart or kmart and I'd look for shoes that ran no more than $20. I usually tried to stick to the $10 shoes.

now that they are older, aren't going through 10 pairs a year from growth spurts, and aren't as hard on their shoes I'm willing to spend more on them. Although I'm still NEVER going to pay $200 for a pair of shoes ... for anyone ... EVER. What are people smoking who charge that OR pay that? I'm willing to pay about $50 now.

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Shoes are not things I mess around with. When they were little, I bought quality shoes that fit, and yes, we've had to buy many a pair in one year.
We bought Sketchers, Adidas, or Nike tennis shoes. For good shoes I bought Dexter or Stride Rite. I went to Stride Rite and Penney's or Sears.
Every so often we would get them a fun pair form Walmart or Target, like those sparkly red ones.
We now go to DSW or Famous Footwear.
My kids are old enough to buy their own. So I don't buy my 14 yo her 3 inch heels (or higher) or Chuck Taylors. I do buy her regular gym shoes, which she rarely wears. They don't sparkle. rolling eyes here

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We got to Once Upon A Child (chain of children's resale shops), Target, or the thrift store. I've never paid more than $15 per pair (and that was new from Target). At Once Upon A Child, the shoes are $5 to $10 per pair, and at the thrift store, they are $1 to $5 per pair.

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I usually shop at Stride Rite outlet. They frequently run buy one get one half off sales and I get my son casual shoes and dress shoes in the same shopping trip. His shoes are typically $30 each, but then I get the second pair for $15. We always size up a half size and that usually gets him through the season (2 pairs for fall/winter and 2 pairs for spring/summer).

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Hello,
I was at the mall today and bought a new pair of tennis shoes for my 5yo daughter. I have a sm collection of almost brand new shoes due to the rate she grows out of them! I myself wont spend more than $20 for shoes she will only wear for a little bit. I shop at Sears, Target and Kohls, (oh and I only buy on sale or clearance-never pay full price).

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i like to go to Ross for shoes, sometimes you get some really cool ones for only 6 to 10 bucks! i also love slickdeals.com bc theres always some kind of deal on kids stuff. i dont like to pay more than 15, but ill pay 20 if i know they are done with their growth spurts (i know it when they stop eating as much food and stop napping as much)

good luck!

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I've got 2 kids aged 5 and 8 and when the 8 year old was little I purchased expensive shoes for her until she lost one shoe. Lesson learned. From that point on I've always bought my children's shoes from either Target or a children's clothing store. The shoes are never too expensive and seeing as they're both hard on them and they go through growth spurts randomly I always buy a 1/2 size up.

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We are kinda lucky in that department. Hubby's parents buy the boys shoes every year for christmas and they are DC shoes so they aren't cheap. However if we (I) buy shoes for the kids I get the cheapest ones. No point in buying the expensive ones when they will just grow out of them. Another thing is we have 4 boys ages 5,4,1, and 2mo. So the shoes never get given away or tossed, unless they are no longer usable. Our oldest ones get the "new" shoes, our one year old is just now starting to wear the hand me down shoes. :)

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I buy my son shoes at Stride Rite. They are really good there at finding shoes that fit and they are generally pretty good quality so they last a long time. I tend to buy him one pair of sneakers for around $35-45 and they last about six months before wearing out or him outgrowing them, and he wears them pretty much every day.

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when our kids were little we always bought the new shoes a half size bigger than their foot was right then lol. As it would do what your child's did and grow a size in a week. My youngest sons feet for whatever reason liked to sprout 2 sizes in a month. The older kids we got their shoes at striderite. for school shoes. play shoes were always bought at payless or target kmart etc. younger sons all come from famous footwear. he has big feet. stays in the same size longer now as it is his legs which are growing 2 sizes at a time.

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I am fortunate that there is an outlet mall near, so I go to the Stride Rite Outlet or Skechers Outlet store. I spend $20-25... they generally only last 6 months for my son, but my daughters shoes will last a good year or so. I generally don't like to spend anymore because they do grow out of them so fast!!

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I know what you mean about the growth spurts. Mine is almost 9 and it seems like we're ALWAYS buying shoes!
Dicks Sporting Goods or Kohl's is where we usually end up.
The last few pairs have been the same brand/style & we keep buying the next pair in the next size up. $65--maybe on sale for $35ish.
And when we were at Kohl's last week-they were on clearance for $23....SCORE! But probably since they were on clearance, now we'll have to find the next "original"! haha Oh well, it was good while it lasted!

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Outlet malls can be great. We love Payless, and we watch for their sales (they run "buy one get one half off" sales regularly). Also, I recommend buying shoes a size above what you need at this age, so he has room to grow.

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I go to Walmart and get the cheaper shoes. I bought my 5 year old a pair of sneakers there and within 4 months, there were scuffed up, the laces were shredded, the toes were scraped away, and they were close to being outgrown. I only spent $13, so I wasn't out much money. He has one pair of nice shoes that I spent about $25 that he will wear to church or pictures. For everyday wear, I get the cheap ones until he will be old enough to take care of them.

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Sometimes we go to Goodwill or a consignment shop like Kid to Kid and they are about $4 - $9 there for really good brands, of course selection is limited, and I always clean the shoes thoroughly before giving him to wear.

Or Khols and JC Pennies usually have some decent sales around the $14 range. I just can't spend $20 on shoes that my son is going to outgrow in a few months. I always make sure the shoe is a little roomy for growth.

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We go to Stride Rite as my son has a wide foot. They have the best selection (wide shoes are hard to find) and are quality shoes. Regular price is range around $40-$60, but we try to hit the bogo 50% off sale, or go to the outlet.

p.s. I feel your pain. There has been a time or two when our son had outgrown his shoes and we bought new ones. Then a couple months down the road he had outgrown those too!

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Before my 9yo became so harsh on shoes I would buy shoes at the end of a season, like come March when the spring styles start coming out. I shopped at Walmart or Payless. When Famous footwear would have their b1g1 half off. I would then buy him shoes from there as I myself only wear Nike or skechers. So I pay full price for mine and got his half off.
For some reason this year he decided to go thru a major growth spurt. He was in a size 2.5 in May and by October he was in a size 5. He was also tearing thru Wal-marts starter brand and even Payless's Jordans or Stride rites in a matter of 2-3 weeks and I mean soles coming off of the bottom of them. I hated spending more than $20 on a pair of shoes for him since he was growing out of them so fast. I finally had to suck it up and spent $30 on a pair of Nikes for him. They finally have lasted 4 months with no sign of falling apart!

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I go to Stride Rite to have my boys sized. And the boys can't do hand me down shoes, because one has long and lean feet, one has short and "wide" feet.
I do go 1/2 size up. Seems like all the shoes in my boys' sizes are $29.99 to 39.99 in general (ages 2 and 5) but I have always had good luck and spend about $11-20 usually because I can find shoes their sizes, at Stride Rite (good quality shoes that do last) on SALE. Sometimes they'll go several months without any noticable growth, and other times they just shoot up, but the 1/2 size up generally works for us.
Growth spurts happen though: I bought 3 pairs of jeans at Childrens Place (and those jeans are great and do not shrink or wear out), and then 2 months later they were about 2" too short (and my son was bumping his head when he tried to walk under the bar suddenly). They just shoot up! I guess that's part of the "joy" of having kids. But for that reason, I don't get upset going to a nice consignment store sometimes because while some jeans/shirts might look worn, I know that other times you'll find someone else's son grew suddenly, before wearing their clothes much too. I always start with a proper sizing visit at Stride Rite but once I know the size, I'm not above buying like-new shoes elsewhere, like Walmart or Target (but I do prefer Stride Rite's shoes or Justin boots, and I'll look for sales before buying elsewhere).

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Hand me downs, either from friends or from ReUseIt/Freecycle or Goodwill/DAV/Salvation Army/the fancy little consignment shop or occaisionally new ones from WalMart. I don't think I have EVER speent more than $15.

As fast as kids grow most shoes can go through 2 or 3 kids before they're worn out! We pass on almost all of ours to somee one else!

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I usually am able to buy from Zappos.com for my son's shoes. They have good deals on skechers, and those are what I get for my son. I will buy a 1/2 size bigger, and they last for a long time. It cost me about $30-40 for a pair of skechers. Free shipping. They fit his feet, and are quality made.

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I always buy 1/2 size up. That gets a few extra months out of them, but they're not so big they fall off or rub.

I've yet to spend less that $40, average is $50-$80

They last 6-9mo on average. Every once in awhile we get a whole calendar year out of them. LOVE it when that happens with cleats!!! Only happened twice in 6 years of cleats buying, though.

((We're pretty brand-loyal. Striderite when he was little, and now adidas calisage sandals, vans skate shoes, converse sneakers, REI hiking shoes. And that's about it. He wears converse with his suits, and his sandals or skate shoes just about everywhere else. Puma cleats. The nice thing about being brand loyal is that shoe shopping takes 5 minutes. We already know which brands and styles fit his feet, so it's just buying the next size.))

One thing my son (still! at age 9!) does, is curl his toes as his shoes start to get to small... so we may not notice for a little while... AND he also curls his toes when trying things on. So we ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS get his feet measured before buying.

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If there is a B1G1 deal, I take it and buy the next size up. I try not to spend too much money and usually like to spend $10 - $15 on shoes because my 6 year old kindergardener (girl) is wearing size 10 pants and 10/12 or large shirts, size 2.5 or 3 shoes, and is 4'1" and 65lbs! She is always growing!

For clothes, I have found one of the private schools has a second hand store by my dentist. Every appointment, I walk in there and find next to new shirts and so far I have not found jeans or I would take them. Shoes are a little more difficult to buy used and wash, so I buy new.

You must have purchased shoes right before his growth spurt and then he grew, yikes! You should be fine to buy new shoes now and he probably wont do it again for 6 months.

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I've done Stride Rite shoes for my daughter since she started needing shoes. I go to a Stride Rite outlet near our house so the cost isn't as much, and fortunately, DD's feet don't seem to grow very fast. I usually spend $30 on a pair of Stride Rite sneakers and they typically last her 6 to 8 months before she outgrows them - and they hold up great the whole time. Kid's shoes are one area that I don't mind spending a little more money on for better quality. They measure her feet and usually I get the next half-size up to give her some growing room.

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i always by my daughters shoes a half size too big i will spend anywhere between 20 and 45 dollars

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we buy out shoes at the outlet stores, along with my daughters clothes and some of my things as well. we normally spend 150-200 on my daughter for 2 seasons (6 months or so) in clothes and shoes, and just fill in when she out grows.

I love Pedipeds for just this reason. They come with an insert that allows you to buy a slightly larger size and still have the shoe fit perfectly. When the kid's foot gets bigger, you take out the insert. They are around the same price as Stride Rite, and are wonderful quality.