Lovely INCHworm Trainers

I just have to tell you about some new children’s trainers I bought for my brood which can actually be adjusted to grow with your children’s feet! (They can be extended by 1 full size in 2 half size increments.)  They’re called INCHworm trainers. It turns out they’ve been around for a while but I’d never heard of them until I saw Julie (my best friend Nikki’s eldest) running around in a pair. As a mother of four rapidly growing sprogs I found the idea of longer lasting footwear very appealing and the price was just about affordable at just under fifty quid, so I decided to give them a go. 

At first the kids loved them and wanted to wear them all the time. Chrissy even wanted to take a bath in them! (Thankfully, she doesn’t take after her father when it comes to bathing! She takes two or three baths a day, he takes two or three baths a week! When I try to get him to bathe more he just says that bathing is for dirty people!)

Anyway, after a few weeks the novelty had worn off and the kids weren’t so interested in the trainers any more. Then Chrissy started complaining that hers felt ‘funny’ and she didn’t want to wear them at all; some of the kids on the street were teasing her about them, which put her off wearing them. I think the trainers look pretty and cool, albeit a little unusual (as you might expect from a new design of trainer) and some kids have a habit of picking on the unusual. 

I have a worry that the trainers may age like normal footwear (which is very rapidly with my little terrors) and so by the time they need extending they may look pretty tatty and I’m not sure how comfortable I am with the idea of my little ones running around in tatty trainers for longer. I also have a worry that the kids may grow out of the shoes as their feet get wider as well as longer.  I’ll have to wait and see.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that the idea of adjustable trainers is a great idea, especially for kids with one foot bigger than the other (which thankfully none of my children have) but I’m not sure that these are the trainers for me … or my kids! Only time will tell.