Best place to get baby's first shoes?

[HelloDulwich]

Would be very grateful for any recommendations of good places locally to get babies fitted for their first shoes.

Preferably not crazily expensive! Thank you very much!

[hpsaucey]

Here! She's so lovely as are the shoes.

https://emmanuellemarshall.com/

HP

[beck]

This depends on how old the baby is, babies shouldn't really be wearing shoes - the best time to get shoes for children is once they have been up walking and weight bearing for a few weeks, then you can get their feet measured ( Clarks do this, or Robert carer shoes)

Before that they are okay just wearing soft 'shoes' that don't restrict the feet at all.

[oimissus]

My daughter was born in the depths of a snowy winter and never had shoes until she could walk (about 14 months).

[HelloDulwich]

Thank you for your reply - baby is standing and starting to take a few steps but I see from your comment probably not quite ready. We will wait until walking properly and then check out some of these recommendations - thank you for all the responses.

[cactus]

Biff in Dulwich Village.

[philosophie]

Biff in Dulwich Village is good but I've felt under pressure to buy shoes I really can't afford a couple of times now. Wish they had a mix of more affordable items too. I also asked for my toddler's measurements and they were a bit cagey about it, saying it would be different in different brands - probably because they knew I might take my custom elsewhere and somewhere a bit cheaper. I do like supporting them as an independent but also felt a bit like a walking ?? symbol to them. And contrary to popular belief, not everyone who lives round here is knees deep in cash.

[prit]

I should add for balance that I had the opposite experience at Biff - my son's school shoes felt tight with half a term of school left that school year, so we went to get measured. Biff staff told us to remove the insoles and keep wearing them to save buying a new pair. They have also always been transparent with measurement info.

[Monkey]

I had another excellent fitting at Biff today.

[buggie]

Dorothy at Emmanuel Marshall is fantastic, she?s highly trained/experienced and

was a huge help with both of my kids with their v narrow feet.

She won?t push a sale if unnecessary or not ready & am sure this helps her to have

such a strong customer base.

We?re up in N Essex now otherwise would still be using her now!

[biffshoesdulwich]

Hi All

Thought it might be helpful to explain a little about measuring and sizes. The measure is just a guide for the shoe fitter. You will find different measures will come up with different sizes. Clark's, for example, will give a guide size 1/2 a size bigger than Start-rite. In other words Clark's are smaller so you need a bigger size. The only way to know the right size is to try on the shoe and check if it fits in both the length and the width - with a good fit allowing for room to grow in both directions. That's why it's very difficult to tell you what size you need from the size on the gauge alone and why you will find your child is a different size in different brands. Even in the same brand different shoes fit differently. This is mainly due to the different shoe lasts and materials from which the shoes are constucted. You will often hear us saying something like "we will start with a 5 but we may end up in a 6".Hope that helps! Do DM with any specific queries

Julie, Biff

[motorbird83]

I've had my kids fitted at Robert Calder and Biff. Both were great.

Definitely wait until they are walking before buying real shoes.