Out of all of the things that I worried about most when my first daughter started school it was School Shoes. Miss 6 has never quite been the fan of shoes and it has not just been shoes, clothes in general have also been a problem. She mostly does not like how things feel on her body for example I’m too hot, I’m too cold, the tag is annoying me, they feel funny and the list goes on.
Prior to starting school I am pretty sure Miss 6 did not manage to keep a pair of shoes on her feet for more than a few hours at a time, how on earth was she going to keep them on for a whole day, 5 days a week for 40 weeks a year.
What I knew more than anything else is that Miss 6 needed a proper fitting shoe and we had to make sure it was comfortable.
We were lucky enough to get the opportunity to go to The Athlete’s Foot for our school shoe fitting this year to see if they could find the perfect fit for a fussy footed 6 year old and pre prep 4 year old. We were also accompanied by a good friend of mine and School Mum helper to get her 11 and 9 year old sons fitted in some shoes as well.
The kids were super excited all morning because who doesn’t love to get a new pair of shoes right?? The only major thing I was disappointed about was that I wasn’t getting a new pair of shoes lol
We arrived to a lovely, helpful store manager Liz from The Athlete’s Foot Northlakes ready to take on 4 kids full of excitement. The first thing I thought was poor Liz but she seemed up for the challenge.
The first thing they did was take the kidlets foot measurement on the classic foot sizing tool most of us have seen and used before.
Kids love a bit of attention and functioning objects so they were happy to take part in the foot fitting process.
After getting their feet measured there was a second step we went through in the process of finding the perfect fit which involved this fancy looking machine called Fitzi.
There were a few moments I wasn’t sure how Miss 4 was going to go with it all but she was quite a fan of the shoe fitting process.
Fitzi is this fancy gadget the kids took turns walking down which measured how they walked, where the pressure was on the soles of their feet and other things I have no idea about but am sure matter in finding the right shoes.
What we learnt from Fitzi is that Miss 6 has a good spread of weight on both feet which is great but it did show that Miss 4 was tending to roll her right foot in quite a bit which could be an issue if it didn’t correct itself with time.
It gave a full individual report on the kids feet and the older boys seemed quite interested in the technology and information. At this point I think the two younger girls were talking about colour and design of shoes and pulling various options off the wall haha
Finally it was trying on shoes time!! Woohoo the kids were excited.
The littlies went first as they were super keen to start trying some shoes on. Miss 4 got the choice between some pink and purple Ascent joggers and she was happy with that. In fact once the shoes were on we did not manage to get them off.
Miss 6 was a different story. She started with some black Clarks leather Maryjane style shoe but decided after 5 mins she wasn’t happy.
While Miss 6 was walking about the store pulling every pair of shoes she could find off the wall to try on Mr 11 was being fitted in some black leather Ascent formal shoes. He got the option of those or the Clarks leather formal shoes and had a walk around the store in both to see what he preferred.
At this point Miss 6 was up to her 3rd pair of shoes to try on until she found what she was happy with which in the end was the original pair of Clarks Mayjane style shoes she initially tried on.
While Miss 4 was running around refusing to take her new shoes off haha
It is with joy and happiness that I report after an hour of shoe fitting (mostly because there was 4 of us) numerous pairs of shoes being tried on and some feet measuring and testing fun that we did in fact manage to find the perfect fit. It was great to have someone spend some time with the kdis fitting their feet properly as we have never experienced that kind of one on one shoe fitting service when purchasing shoes in the past from other stores.
The one person though who we need to say a BIG thankyou to was the Store Manger Liz from The Athlete’s Foot Northlakes who was a serious legend. She happily and easily talked to the kids, responded to their requests and made them feel comfortable and relaxed.
Miss 6 and Miss 4 have been wearing their shoes around for days now without a complaint which is awesome!! What I like the most though is knowing that my kids are wearing proper fitting and supportive shoes. The reality is they wear them 5 days a week for 6 hours a day, 40 weeks of the year. I know if I had to wear the same shoes that much I would want some seriously proper fitting shoes and so I think my kids should too.
Thanks to The Athlete’s Foot for a great experience and some quality shoes for the kids!! To check out their current school range you can click here.
**This post has been a Sponsored by The Athletes Foot.
