Shoe store craze | Imamother

Fabulous

Tue, Aug 16 2016, 3:31 pm

amother wrote:

I ask again, how do they know how to fit the shoe properly? Were they trained in any professional capacity, or are they using the same skills you use on your own kids? Stop and think for a second.

The correct answer, of course, is the latter. There is no such thing as professional shoe fitting or training for it. Have you ever seen such course advertised anywhere?

FTR, people come from all over specifically to have my mother fit their shoes. She does it for them well, but the mother of the child could have done it just as well herself. There are no extra special skills involved.

It's called experience and a feel for it. If I would fit kids 8 hours a day, five days a week for a few years and I was good at it, I could be a fitter too.

gp2.0

Tue, Aug 16 2016, 4:07 pm

Funny. When I went shopping at a fancy shoe store in Boro Park (exactly twice) I was told that my kids are "very hard to fit" because they have narrow feet or one foot is different than the other or some other reason. They then brought me out a selection of 2 or 3 shoes which are the only ones that can supposedly fit and none of them were the cute ones in the window, nor were they the ones on sale.

They made a big fuss about fitting the shoe exactly right. My kids seemed ok walking in them but I always had a hard time getting the shoes on and off, they felt very snug and tight to me.

Then I decided to try payless, and stride rite, and the big wide world of the internet, and suddenly I have thousands of styles to pick from and believe it or not, they all fit just fine. Confused

Notsobusy

Tue, Aug 16 2016, 4:50 pm

gp2.0 wrote:

You must have gone to amethyst's mother Wink

I don't usually shop in the Jewish shoe stores, but there are definitely some who are better at fitting shoes than others. I don't know if they took a course or they were trained by someone with experience or maybe they just have years of experience. The stride rite I used to shop in had one very experienced fitter, the other workers would always ask her to make sure that the shoes really fit.

ra_mom

Tue, Aug 16 2016, 4:58 pm

I always know if a shoe fits my child when they're trying it on.
But I don't know how much room is big enough to last a few months but not too big that it doesn't fit right away.
I purchase inexpensive comfortable shoes for my children, the type that I don't mind if they grow out of quickly. But good solid weekday shoes I need help with because I want something that's solid but doesn't cut in, holds the foot but doesn't gap or pinch, enough room too grow but not too big that there isn't support... So I take the kids to a store whose employees are well trained and who know how to fit a shoe this way.

flowerpower

Tue, Aug 16 2016, 5:44 pm

ra_mom wrote:

Just make sure you don't go to Mrs Attitude who can't fit but pretends to just to shut you up. She will
Come home after and make fun of you to her married dd.

amother

Apricot

Tue, Aug 16 2016, 6:18 pm

amother wrote:

Yes, it gets me so nervous. There was a family in front of me that got me so mad. They brought along the grandmother. So the mother and grandmother were deciding for 1/2 hour between 2 shoes. The child had to keep changing between the 2 shoes and then they would bring out another one and then they would try on the first one again................................ This family had at least 3 children getting shabbos and weekday shoes. I wanted to yell and scream!!!!! It's only shoes as long as the shoe fits just take it and move along. You would think buying a child shoes was a major life decision.

That was probably my sil LOL

seeker

Tue, Aug 16 2016, 9:11 pm

Fitting shoes can be an issue for kids that are too young to describe whether they're comfortable in their shoes.

I have one with a challenging foot shape. We have always had better results with the expensive Boro park shoe fitters. When I tried on my own, I waste a ton of time in trial and error and sometimes don't even come out with good shoes - they get stretched out and don't support her right anymore, or things like that. The good salespeople know their shoes and feet. Nobody beats Tescher, though, the scene has definitely gone downhill since he retired.

My other dd had a walking issue that the shoe fitter noticed first. The pediatrician only looks at the kid walk by the yearly well visit and I'm not even sure he would have noticed it, but thanks to the shoe pro we were able to get a podiatrist referral and now a couple of years later her walking is almost perfect - it would have first gotten worse before anyone realized.

So in short I believe in shoe fitting as an art, but practically speaking I'm not going to Brooklyn, waiting hours, and paying a fortune every time.

seeker

Wed, Aug 17 2016, 12:19 am

gp2.0 wrote:

I remember reading awhile ago that the idea that a supportive shoe is necessary is a myth. Kids (and adults) actually do better and develop more strength and flexibility when they go barefoot. Shoes are just to protect feet from rough surfaces or sharp objects and they should be as lightweight and roomy as possible, as opposed to as snug and sturdy as possible.

I believe that is regarding early walkers who are still developing. For yourself I'm sure you appreciate a shoe that fits well. You don't want one that moves around and gives you blisters, or with the wrong amount of arch support. If your kid's shoe is causing them blisters it'll be too late by the time you realize but a good shoe fitter should be able to avoid it altogether.they also know which shoes are good quality in the first place.even within the same brands there can be a lot of variation. Once my kid with the hard shape was trying on a shoe that got and saw the same style in a different color on display. She wanted the other one but the fitter explained that even though they were the same brands and a similar style the cut was different and it wouldn't go well on her. I would not have known that if I tried to order it online. I remember reading in an interview once that Tescher used to go to the trade shows in Europe and have the companies tweak their shoes to his specification. I am sensory and have picky feet, I very often buy shoes that seem to fit ok or feel comfortable but then I don't end up wearing them because they weren't right after all.that never used to happen in the Tescher days, sometimes it took him time to get me right but I never went home with something I didn't keep wearing through the season.

mommy3b2c

Wed, Aug 17 2016, 12:22 am

gp2.0 wrote:

My mom was actually told exactly this when she went with my brother to see an orthopedist that specializes in children's feet issues. He told her, "honey, shoes are to keep the socks clean."

amother

Green

Wed, Aug 17 2016, 1:40 am

I don't know whether these people are professionals or not, but I have vivid (somewhat nostalgic) memories of going to Teschers as a child, and waiting for hours for Mr. Tescher to measure me and my siblings. Yeah, I hated the long wait, but I always wound up with a solid pair of shoes that I wore the whole school year.
In the meantime, I was terribly jealous of my best friend whose mother shopped for her shoes at Payless, because she got a new pair of shoes every two months. LOL

Poor me with my horrible mother who didn't let me shop at Payless. I had to wear the same boring shoes for an entire year, because they still fit and were in great condition all through the last day of school.

amother

Salmon

Wed, Aug 17 2016, 2:33 am

amother wrote:

I remember my shoes lasting me a full school year also. Not anymore, these days the shoes ruin after 4-5 months.

gp2.0

Wed, Aug 17 2016, 11:04 am

seeker wrote:

It's especially regarding early walkers, but really kids of any age. Adults too, though adults have the problem where they've conditioned their feet to specific shoes and then have pain without them, which is unfortunate.

The first thing I do when I walk into the house is take off my shoes. So do my kids. I'm sensory too and I actually prefer going barefoot whenever I can. (I'm expecting some passive agressive hugs for this statement so bring it, people. I can take it.)

Going barefoot on hardwood floors and grass is very comfy. Cement, asphalt and rock tile are ok for short periods. Gravel or rocky uneven surfaces are obviously uncomfortable.

My favorite shoe is a low profile shoe that mimics the natural shape of my foot as best and unobtrusively as possible. That means no touching the ankle, wide or flexible toe box, flexible upper that moves with the foot, rubbery outsole.

Arch support sounds like a myth to me too. My heel and toes are supporting my arches. Probably a bunch of tendons or ligaments or whatever in there doing the job too. I mean it begs the mysterious question, how is it possible that only the arches on our feet somehow need support? Maybe we need elbow support? Knee support? Neck support? It seems so arbitrary. I'm sure there are some very few people who actually need the arch support - then again, there are some people who need neck support - doesn't mean we're all going around with neck supports.

Google proprioception and how wearing shoes makes both your brain and feet work harder to compensate for the loss of information that they would be getting if you were barefoot.