Stride Rite

My kids are 4 and a half. I always buy stride rite shoes (even their flip flops). I have always thought that this store had a pretty limited inventory but tonight the customer service was terrible. My son said the shoes were too tight and when I asked if they came in wide. The saleswoman said she didn’t know but they didn’t have them there. When I asked if she could check if they even came in a wide, she actually yelled at me. She was clearly overwhelmed even though there was only one other mom in the store. If I were the manager, I would fire her. Even though i see on my computer that they do indeed sell wides in this shoe. Stride-​rite has lost a customer. With 2 kids, I typically spend about $ 120 a shot there. I shouldn’t have a problem finding high quality shoes elsewhere.

Before my oldest could walk she had a very fancy shoe collection: uggs, stuart weitzman, toms, etc. Basically all my favorite brands for myself! I definitely didn’t see the not as fashionable stride rite shoes in her future. And I was NOT going to be the parent who bought my daughter light up princess shoes. Four years later the joke is on me because my daughter will ONLY wear light up princess shoes. And I actually have come to like stride rite for the following reasons…
1) It’s comfortable! My kids actually want to put on their shoes (can’t say the same for myself when it comes to most my shoes), which makes me think they must be comfortable. And they sure run around in their shoes a lot more than I do.
2) They make shoe shopping easy! Shoe shopping is an absolute nightmare with little ones, but my kids beg me to go into stride rite… likely to admire all the princess and super hero shoes. On the past few occasions I’ve been helped by 2 fabulous women who really seem to know the kids shoe biz.
3) It’s affordable. They always seem to be having some sort of sale. I highly recommend signing up for their membership program because they send coupons galore in the mail.
I could still do without all the princess and sparkles on my daughter’s feet, but they make her happy and that’s what counts. On our most recent trip to stride rite she tried on the most obnoxious pair of frozen boots that I swore to myself we would not be bringing home. As soon as we zipped them up she burst into «let it go» verse and danced around the store. She now wears the boots daily and, I admit, they are even starting to grow on me a bit.

We’ve been to this location two times (and another location once) and they really know baby feet. There’s a woman who works at this location and she’s great with kids and very patient and funny. She’ll take the time to explain the style and tell you what to look for in fit. One thing that annoys me about all Stride Rite stores is that they never have much selection. I’m used to walking into a shoe store for myself and picking out a shoe and saying «I’d like this in my size» but at stride rite your kid gets sized and then they bring out whatever they have in that style. So you might not get much of a choice. But you know that the shoes are good for their growing feet.