Why is fitted footwear important?

It's important to measure your children's feet accurately before buying them each pair of shoes, to ensure healthy foot development for years to come.

Getting the correct advice will ensure that your child is measured and fitted with the correct size and style of shoe for their feet, through every stage of their development. To do this, you can either use our specially developed measuring tools online to help you to measure your child's feet at home, or if it's more convenient, visit one of our stockists where trained staff will measure and fit.

Properly fitted shoes play a vital role in helping to safeguard the healthy development of your child’s feet. Shoes which don’t fit properly can cause sores or blisters and at worst may even lead to long-term foot problems. This can often happen for narrow and wide feet when they're squeezed into shoes that are too tight, or have too much room.

Experts estimate that 70% of adults suffer from foot health problems and that the majority of these problems are the result of wearing ill-fitting shoes in childhood. This is because when your child is very young the bones in their feet are made of soft spongy cartilage which can easily be pushed out of alignment by shoes (and even sleepsuits and socks) which don’t fit properly. The nerve endings in babies’ feet also take time to develop, so your child may not be able to let you know if their feet are sore or squashed by shoes, making checking the fit so important.

At best, poorly fitted shoes won’t wear as well, so never settle for anything less than the perfect fit.

To help you measure your kids feet in the comfort of your own home visit our measuring section where you can choose from a number of different tools to help you get their Start-Rite shoe size.

We’re constantly conducting research into how children move and how vital their feet are to their whole bodies.

We’ve taken this, and working with leading specialists, incorporated this ‘science’ into our ranges – ensuring our shoes not only feel good, but are good for your child’s whole development.