The best thing you can do to ensure your child’s comfort in their new shoes is picking out their correct size. Their shoes should fit them, not the other way around! Our size guide is here to help make sure their new shoes fit equally as good as they look.  

To help break in your child’s new shoes even before their first day at school, they can wear them around the house for short bursts of time to loosen them up. Protecting their feet with thick socks will also prevent rubbing and blisters whilst slightly stretching the material of the shoe for added comfort. Lastly, try tying the shoes tightly for that same stretching effect, making their shoes comfortable for them as soon as possible.

Ideally, a good pair of shoes will last until your child grows out of them and is ready for a new size. However, if normal wear and tear affects the shoes before this, either on the outer part of the shoe or even the insole, a replacement pair is a good idea to ensure your child can walk and run as freely as ever.

You can expect around 700 hours of wear out of a good shoe, which should be around 6 months of the school year.

Smaller kids grow at a much faster rate, feet included, so you may see a size increase of up to two sizes a year. Slightly older kids will average one size increase per year, while some teens may retain the same shoe size for longer as growth begins to steady.

With that said, all children are unique, so having your child’s feet measured regularly will ensure they are always comfortable in their shoes. 

Most kids, especially smaller children, will grow at least one shoe size per year.

Some may grow faster than this, while others grow less rapidly. This will be slightly different for every child so regularly checking that your child is still comfortable in their current shoe size and having them measured is always a good idea.

Typically, feet stop growing in size at around 13 years of age for girls and around 16 years for boys. However, some children may still see continued slower growth past these ages and will therefore need a different shoe size to accommodate this.

Shoes should ideally be neither too small or too big as both come with their own, and similar, set of problems.

If shoes are too small, this will cause rubbing friction that creates blisters. Shoes that are too big are also less than optimal. As your child’s foot moves or slides in their shoes, their ability to walk normally is hindered. This can also cause blisters and potentially even hurt their toenails.

The perfect shoe size will leave about a half of an inch of space between the front of the shoe and toes, allowing the toes slight space to move, while still supporting the entire shoe.

There should not be too much free space in your child’s shoes, just enough for the toes to move a little. About a half of an inch of space from the front of the shoe is typically enough.

Velcro refers to the original manufacturers of touch-fasteners – their brand became heavily associated with their invention as they were able to patent the technology. The technology itself is called touch-fastening, also commonly referred to as hook-and-loop fastening.