School Shoes Fit For Adventure

Keeping shoes on my kids' feet is a challenge. They're always the ones that lead the brigade of a mass shoe and sock strip off at the park. I usually find myself wondering what the other Mums must think of my feral children and am torn between wanting to put them back on to protect their tiny toes to not giving two hoots and letting them run around as nature intended.

Thankfully the latter usually wins.

I was recently introduced to a footwear brand called Vivobarefoot who wholeheartedly believe in creating shoes which allow children to run around as barefoot as possible. I was intrigued by their passion for seeing children play and explore with shoes which help to support their development too.

According to a major study at Bournemouth University, keeping shoes off kids’ feet in classrooms allows them to concentrate more and perform better academically. This is because their feet have up to 200,000 nerve-endings that send vital messages to their brains. So in a nutshell, the more that feet can feel the better the sensory connection and the better it is for young minds.

Intrigued by these findings, when we were invited to try out some of Vivobarefoot's new school shoes, I of course welcomed the chance. Anwen will be starting at her Primary School Nursery in September and will be walking in in her very first school shoes. Knowing that they're also going to give her the very best start in school is really reassuring.

When they arrived last week we decided to head out into the woods to really put them to the test. The leather on both pairs was soft and gentle on their feet so tree climbing wasn't a problem and there were no complaints of blisters afterwards.

I loved that the shoes were nice and wide so didn't restrict the kids' feet or leave any marks, despite us leaving the socks behind. Wilf has 'a thing' about getting blisters and always likes to wear socks, so I was pleased that my assurances that they'd be fine without them, turned out to be true. Both pairs look like classic school shoes and the style I would normally go for with a nice matte finish to the leather. They also don't look as bulky as ones we've bought before, thanks to the 'minimal sole' design.

We've just returned from a long weekend at Wilderness Festival, where this pair of adventurers roamed free and got to experience some amazing things for the very first time (more on that another time). The Summer is already flying by so I can't tell you how relieved this last-minute-mama is to have ticked 'school shoes' off my (mental) list of things to get organised for the new term.

All that said, we still have over three weeks of memory making to be had in these Summer holidays, times for taking it slow, finding adventure and getting outside (when the weather allows). New school shoes would usually be sat squeaky clean in a box ready the first week of September, something tells me though that they'll be reaching for these and slipping them on again before Summer is out.

This post was written in collaboration with Vivobarefoot, however, as always, all opinions expressed are my own. Thank you so much for supporting the brands that support the little maldod blog.