yet another first shoes thread...

[hildare]

i've looked several places and i want some gender neutral shoes. i do not want to have to look at "boy shoes" or "girl shoes." i just want something nice for my getting-ready-to walk babe! any ideas?

[Beauchamp]

I went with Robeez. I got DD two pairs when she turned one. Before that, no shoes.

I got mine on Amazon when they had a sale. There are a lot of good brands, though, so I expect you'll get some good advice from the others.

[carmel23]

I've been obsessed with shoes with this little one.

Right now my crawler/cruiser is wearing robbeez (they are gender neutral). But there are TONS of cute robeez like shoes on Etsy.

See Kai Run has some cute ones, Soft star shoes: http://www.softstarshoes.com/. I have some pedoodles, but they're older and aren't the best. They come off too easily, but they are gender neutral.

I really think robbeez type shoes are the best until they're 15 months or so, and then still something very soft...

[texaspeach]

if you want shoe shoes and not slippers, I have been considering one of these styles

[mkksmom]

Preschoolians makes a nice white shoe for early walkers. Enough to protect their feet, but still very soft and flexible.

[hildare]

Originally Posted by carmel23

See Kai Run has some cute ones, Soft star shoes: http://www.softstarshoes.com/.

those are exactly what i was looking for! too bad there's no red, though

[Quinalla]

Originally Posted by hildare

those are exactly what i was looking for! too bad there's no red, though

Softstarshoes will make them in any color you want if you go through the custom order section. I got shoes for myself from them and it is really easy to do a custom order.

[carmel23]

This was 6 years ago, so maybe this has changed, but the 'regular' stride rite shoes were WAAAY too stiff for a newly walking baby IMO.

See Kai runs are super flexible, soft and are "real" shoes not slippers.

But that is merely my humble 2 cents.

[MamieCole]

Isabooties are a great alternative to Robeez.

[texaspeach]

Originally Posted by carmel23

This was 6 years ago, so maybe this has changed, but the 'regular' stride rite shoes were WAAAY too stiff for a newly walking baby IMO.

See Kai runs are super flexible, soft and are "real" shoes not slippers.

But that is merely my humble 2 cents.

good to know. I ordered some see kai run shoes on babysteals yesterday. I hadn't been to stride rite to check them out yet.

[carmel23]

Originally Posted by texaspeach

good to know. I ordered some see kai run shoes on babysteals yesterday. I hadn't been to stride rite to check them out yet.

Yeah, they were like too stiff to even get on my little one! But that was with my now 6 yo son. I know they also make a "crawling to walking" shoe, that looks really flexible. But I don't know if they still makes those or what.

See Kai runs are great-- soft, sturdy, a great shoe (not too expensive.)

[maddymama]

Originally Posted by MamieCole

Isabooties are a great alternative to Robeez.

yeah that! We love our Isabooties!
~maddymama

[busymama77]

I've been looking around for DS's shoes already and he's only 4.5M! For my ODS, I bought the Target brand of Robeez and they worked great. I think I'm going to look at those, Bobux, Pedipeds or SKR smaller (http://www.seekairun.com/cgi-bin/com...n&key=CAMPBELL)

[tzs]

my dd has super tiny feet. she's still in 0-6 robeez and a size 1 in "shoes" and she's 10 months. all the pre-walkers seem to start at 3 or 4.
she's going to be walking before her feet are big enough for soled shoes it seems! what to do?

[MamieCole]

Originally Posted by tzs

my dd has super tiny feet. she's still in 0-6 robeez and a size 1 in "shoes" and she's 10 months. all the pre-walkers seem to start at 3 or 4.
she's going to be walking before her feet are big enough for soled shoes it seems! what to do?

That was just like DS1. He had/has tiny feet. When he first started walking around 12 months he was still in size 0-6 month Robeez. I just kept him in those or Pedipeds for the first couple of years. When he was 3 he finally fit into regular SKRs. But we try to do bare feet as much as possible.

[Knitting Mama]

Originally Posted by tzs

my dd has super tiny feet. she's still in 0-6 robeez and a size 1 in "shoes" and she's 10 months. all the pre-walkers seem to start at 3 or 4.
she's going to be walking before her feet are big enough for soled shoes it seems! what to do?

Bare feet!

There's no developmental reason to not let her learn to walk in bare feet. Pretty much all website advocate learning to walk barefoot, even Robeez' own site.

[tzs]

no for sure. we do barefeet in the summer even though her robeez are so super cute. i make the sacrifice of fashion. i'm just thinking she's going to start walking sometime close to or in the winter so she'll need shoes for outside.

[EdnaMarie]

There's no developmental reason to not let her learn to walk in bare feet. Pretty much all website advocate learning to walk barefoot, even Robeez' own site.

They do keep socks from getting holes in them when walking outside in 45 degree weather, however, which is nice. Of course, I see you are in Arizona, Cecilia.

Hildare, I have a pair of plain brown leather Robeez that both my girls wore and that will be great for a boy. I love them. They match everything except Christmas dresses pretty much!

[hildare]

thanks for suggestions everyone!
we are barefoot, i'm a barefoot lovin' mama.. i am trying to plan ahead for walking in cool weather, and also times outdoors.
i know i am just a huge crank, but it totally annoys the stink out of me to look for things like shoes and hats and have to choose whether i want designated "boy" or "girl" ones on a website. Their feet aren't different... what's different are the sparkles or lack of them, or availability of pinkness. Simply trying to buy shoes shouldn't raise my blood pressure quite so much, kwim?! i try to only goodwill it for the most part, where everything is just "kid's," but this shoe thing is majorly stressing me out.
sorry for the mini-rant. those were nice shoes everyone shared

[mum5]

check out www.bobux.com they are the original.
I love, love love them, but my mum is from New Zealand,. so I am a little biased
they have great designs, they wear really well also, which is great for subsequent children and if you go to www.retail me not , you can get a 20% off coupon code, and they will ship free also, and it is super quick.

Off the subject, but I have a merino cardigan for ds from them, and it is awesome.