Perfect for teeny tiny feet (Clarks)

Member Name: carlz2001uk

Product:	Clarks
Date:	04/09/09 (78 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great selection, nice designs, half sizes offered

Disadvantages: Quality

Firstly, let me say that this a review of children's shoes at Clarks, and not the adult selection, as I have personally never liked any of the shoes available for adults at Clarks.
Growing up myself in Clarks shoes, when my children started 'cruising' I considered Clarks and Clarks only - it had to be the best for my little ones precious little toes. I have only dabbled slightly in Next shoes for my children, but mainly have stuck with Clarks, even though I'm not 100% happy with them as a whole. I choose to chop here for my children, as they are well known at being the best shoes available for children, with the excellent foot measuring service, and the invaluable half sizes, which I have struggled to find elsewhere.

I am, as I have mentioned not entirely happy with Clarks. My first niggle is the supposed quality. The shoes are very soft leather, and obviously give comfort and support, and I know these are toddlers shoes that I'm talking about, but within 4 or 5 days of buying shoes from Clarks, they always look tatty to me. My daughters are not hooligans intent on ruining their shoes, nor are they walking on tiptoes for fear of upsetting mum by scuffing them, they are normal little girls. I would expect that at £28 a time (every 6 or 8 weeks on some occasions) they would hold out a little longer. As I have 2 daughters, I reckon I have bought about 15 pairs in total over the last three years, as feet grow very quickly as I have found out in horror over the last few years! Nearly all of them have become scruffy and scuffed at the front within a few days of use. The patent material even rubs off completely at the front! I have tried buying the protective sprays, the brush on paint cover up (offered in various colours I may add - very expensive!), but none seem to do the job. I also struggled to find shoes that were actually small enough for both of my daughters when they both started walking - something I wasn't expecting from a supposed shoe specialist! So, on both occasions, when my daughters were actually a size 2, we had to buy bigger 2 and a half sizes.

My other little niggle is the sizing. My 3 year old daughter is growing steadily and after having her feet measured 6 weeks ago, she was a 5F (the letter indicates the width of the foot - the higher the letter, the wider the foot), and so when we took my 1 year old for her second pair of shoes last week, I wasn't even going to bother having the eldest feet measured. Determined not to be left out however, she insisted on having them measured and to my horror, they told me her feet were now in fact a 6D! So, let me get this right.... her foot has grown but it's also shrunk in width, that's correct they tell me. Hoh kay! So, we consider the shoes they have on offer, and as we are now unexpectedly forking out on two pairs of shoes (which will no doubt be too small again in another couple of months), I'm checking the prices on the bottom of the shoes. Well I wanted to, but none of the shoes had prices on! Not a single one! I didn't want to come across as tight, so we picked the shoes we liked (from the excellent selection I may add!) and went to pay, knowing that on average the toddlers shoes were about £18 and the bigger ones were about £24. £56 they ask for! New season shoes they tell me - only been out a week! Great, I'm sure my fashion conscious babies will be over the moon! So a week later, and have these shoes scuffed - no! Well not yet anyway, however they are both different types of material than we have had before, so give it time!

So now that I have had a rant about the shoes, I'm going to explain about the service and the shop itself. The service we have received at Clarks, has been on the whole, ok, not poor, not excellent, but somewhere in the middle. I have always found the wait time for service and foot measuring to be poor, with little seating area, and few members of staff. The shoes fitting service is good, but I'm not sure about the accuracy giving the F to a D scenario! The shop that we visit most often is in Forster Square, a shopping area just outside of Bradford centre and is always clean and tidy. I like the service they offer when you take your child for the first time as they take a Polaroid of your little one trying the shoe on, and put it in a little card holder with the shoe size, date, etc on. A nice little touch.

All in all, if you are after comfort for your little ones and a good selection, then I would come here, but for the older ones, I would say that Next shoes are slightly nicer and a little cheaper!

Summary: 3 stars