As the air grows warmer, a slow smile spreads over my face. I’m not thinking about beach vacations or barbecues though. No, the thought balloon over my head says, Soon my kids will wear sandals, and I won’t have to hunt and wash and match all these godforsakenly irritating itty bitty socks.
The new spring 2010 collection at Stride Rite will make those sun-starved piggies look and feel fabulous. I can’t say enough wonderful things about the newest kids’ shoes by Robeez (yes, they’re owned by Stride Rite now), especially the Lollipop Monsters that had a gaggle of teen girls cooing and flirting with my boy in line at Moe’s.
The offering of boys’ shoes is especially awesome right now, including tattooed whales, VW buses, hatching dinosaurs, and totally sick 3D Dragons in the Mini Shoez line for ages 2 to 5. Of course, the girls’ Robeez are just as sweet as ever with lots of 3D designs, but don’t expect anything much more inventive than cupcakes, flowers and hearts–although the Robeez organic prewalkers are just gorgeous, made of organic canvas, naturally tanned suede, and recycled leather uppers.
For the bigger kids, Stride Rite offers a rainbow of stylish and ergonomic choices with more conventional styling, like the Lollipop sandals with a do-it-myself velcro strap cleverly disguised as a buckle.
Of course, by the time summer is over my dreamy smile will really mean, Oh, good, winter means no sand in the house and no ants and won’t it be nice to be cool again? And then I’ll start shopping for kids’ winter boots, and the circle will be complete.~Delilah
Shop the Stride Rite Spring 2010 Collection for cool kids’ shoes from newborn to kids’ sizes.
Also, have you been pronouncing “Robeez” wrong all this time? Check out our children’s brand pronunciation guide and see where you stand!
Honestly, I’m more than a little irritated that stride rite doesn’t offer a ‘rainbow’ of choices in sandals for toddlers. My daughter needs a pair of ‘new walkers’ so I looked to stride rite for a quality pair that would have the appropriate support and flex. Every single pair is pink. Pink and white, pink and brown, maybe pink and purple. Every pair except one that’s called ‘gold’, but looks taupe or beige or just blah. Why are little girls forced more and more into only pink and purple and white? Does their world have to be so sexist before they can even say the word?
We agree completely Ed, Stride Rite’s strong suit is definitely not girls’ shoes, something we mentioned back in ’08. https://www.coolmompicks.com/2008/10/stride_rite_prewalkers_go_greener.php
The Keds’ line has some cute options (love the saddle shoes) but it would indeed be nice to see the designers to step away from the pink and white for a change.
I bought a pair of blinking motion activated toddler slippers for my then 18 month old for Chistmas… within 2 weeks of buying them, one of the shoes stopped blinking. I called Stride Right and complained (politely) and the best that they said is to take it back to the store within a couple of weeks. No apology, no nothing. The store is over 2 hours away near my in laws and is not a trip that we were planning on making, especially with a little one in tow. As a result, she rarely wore the slippers – and we haven’t bought another pair from them since. Customer service is key to us and they are severely lacking. They need to take a page from other retailers like Lands End, LL Bean, Siera Trading Post, REI… that have great customer service and as a result, continue to have our business.
You’re right, customer service can make or break a relationship! That said,Stride-Rite isn’t a catalog company like Lands End and LL Bean–really, they’re a manufacturer and most of their sales are through stores, so perhaps their operators are not as well trained. Or perhaps you got got one bad person on the phone. It happens.
If you’re ever having a challenge like that, call back and ask for a manager and try and get some satisfaction that way. Or….twitter works very well for customer complaints these days!
Thanks for sharing your story Genie.