After Madame started walking and stopped crawling altogether, we figured it was time to finally think about getting some shoes on her feet. And like I've mentioned before, it was like sticking her in cement. The shoes we were trying (sneakers that were probably too small) were too heavy and too foreign for her to even consider walking with them. Eventually we found a pair of soft shoes from Nike that had a very minimal sole and a Velcro piece that wrapped around the heel for easy shoeing (who knew "shoeing" was a word?).
Anyway, I've tried to find a link to those shoes but I've been unsuccessful. Then yesterday a friend of mine sent me a link to these - Gucio shoes. Apparently a former design student in Poland tried making the perfect kids shoe for his final project and, after studying shoe making in Italy, it's become a full time business. Each shoe is hand made and designed for comfort and flexibility. The shoes look pretty cool, but handmade kid's shoes from Poland are going to set you back $47.99. And am I going to let my daughter run around the park in handmade shoes that cost $47.99? Not anytime soon.
The good news is I bought a pair of regular kid's sneakers from Nike, and after about two weeks of the first transitional shoes, she graduated to the sneakers and hasn't looked back since.
Gucio shoes available for $47.99 (gulp) at ToddlerTreads.com [thanks Beth].