September brings new backpacks, tight schedules, familiar routines, and once again, closed-toe shoes for many hours for feet that have been bare for many weeks. Armando Bastida explains what really changes for children's feet, and why choosing the right footwear shouldn't feel like studying for an exam.

When we think about September, with children, the new backpack, the bag full of materials requested by the school, the pencil case with erasers that get lost in three days, clothes with embroidered or ironed names, new schedules to memorize, and, at some point on the list, new shoes for school, quickly come to mind.

And this is where, if you've looked into information about children's footwear in recent years, you've probably realized that there are words our mothers and fathers (especially mothers), who bought all our childhood shoes, never heard: drop, heel counter, anatomical toe box, torsional flexibility, barefoot...

At some point, it feels like buying a pair of children's sneakers requires passing a kind of exam after completing a master's degree, with fear of making a mistake in any of the features.

Well, it's not necessary. Really. But it is worth understanding a little about what has changed for your child's feet this summer, and which of all that new vocabulary truly matters when choosing.

Let's start with the question that everything stems from: what happens to feet after weeks of much more freedom, without socks, without laces, often barefoot at home, by the pool, or at the beach?

What really changes after summer

During the summer, many children spend more time without shoes or in very open footwear. The foot, in these conditions, moves with little around it: it can widen slightly during support, the toes have more room to move independently, and contact with the ground is direct, with nothing to cushion or redirect that contact.

With the return to school, that foot spends many hours inside a closed shoe again. And while this may sound concerning, there is no special "readaptation" your child needs to do. There's no need to gradually put the foot back into the shoe like reintroducing a food. The foot hasn't lost any capacity from being freer for a few months; it simply returns to a different mechanical environment and adapts to it with the same naturalness with which it adapted to summer.

What is likely, and much less glamorous than talking about biomechanics, is that the foot has grown. Children's feet change size with surprising speed every year, and the shoe that fit perfectly in June may have become too small by September. Before worrying about drops and heel counters, it's worth doing something as simple as measuring the foot again.

Shoes change how the foot moves: but that doesn't mean it's bad

While it may sound contradictory at first glance, any shoe, by the simple fact of being an external structure around the foot, modifies to some degree how it moves. Several scientific reviews comparing barefoot and shod gait in children find measurable differences in things like step length, stance time, or base of support (1) (4). The shod foot and the barefoot foot simply do not behave the same.

That doesn't make the shoe an enemy. Not necessarily. Footwear protects from hot, sharp, or irregular surfaces, allows a child to play in the yard without having to watch every stone, and is part of how life works in a school, in a city, in a park, in the woods, or on a rainy day. And real life includes asphalt, gravel, puddles, and playgrounds, and there, shoes serve a very important function without that being any drama.

The reasonable idea is not "always barefoot, never shoes," nor the other way around. It's that, when the context allows, the shoe should interfere as little as necessary with the natural movement of the foot. And when the context doesn't allow it—because you have to go to school, or it's cold, or the ground isn't suitable for bare feet—the goal is for that shoe to accompany the foot instead of fighting with it.

Okay, but... what shoes should I buy?

Breathe. There's no exam.

You don't need to find a shoe that scores a perfect ten on each of the twenty features you might read about. There are recent professional guides that have reviewed available recommendations on children's footwear, and one of the conclusions is that many of these recommendations are based primarily on expert consensus, not definitive scientific data for every detail. That doesn't invalidate them, but it does explain why it makes sense to prioritize a few things with good judgment, rather than pursuing perfection in everything.

That it fits well

This is the most important point and, curiously, the most overlooked. It's advisable to leave some space at the toe — guides usually talk about an approximate margin of one centimeter or a little more between the longest toe and the end of the shoe (6) — and check that there is no compression on the sides.

Buying a size larger "to make it last" sounds like saving money, but a shoe that is too loose also makes it difficult to walk normally. So, not too tight, not too big: it should fit the foot your child has now, not the one they'll have in spring.

That it allows movement

An excessively rigid or heavy shoe forces the foot to work against it with each step, instead of accompanying it. There's no need to turn this into a home test with strict rules or a single decisive criterion; it's simply worth looking for flexible materials and soles that don't impose more structure than what your child's stage of life needs.

That it is suitable for what they are going to do

Important, and not always talked about. A shoe for sitting in class for six hours is not the same as sneakers for recess, for physical education, for a specific sport, or for an afternoon wedding.

Context changes which features matter more: a shoe for occasional use can prioritize different things than one that will be worn eight hours a day, five days a week.

What no label can tell you

Your little one.

No technical sheet, no certification, no stamp on the box replaces what you can directly observe: if they walk differently with that shoe on, if they complain about something, if marks or chafing appear when they take it off, if they suddenly want to go barefoot as soon as they get home, or if they simply seem comfortable and continue playing as always with a new shoe.

None of these signs, by themselves, is a diagnosis. A temporary rub can be just that, a temporary rub. But if it hurts when you put it on, you see they are uncomfortable, they walk clearly differently, or anything that makes you doubt, it's sensible to consult a healthcare professional who can assess it individually, instead of trying to solve it by comparing models online.

Every child has their feet: literally

Feet are not all the same, not even within the same family. Width, volume, instep shape, the child's growth stage, activity level, and the terrain they usually move on all vary.

A recent study on anthropometric variations of children's feet found significant differences in various measurements according to sex and size, to the point of questioning whether a single last is equally suitable for everyone beyond certain numbers (5). This is not a surprise to anyone who has tried to buy shoes for two siblings with completely different feet.

“It’s not about the child adapting to the shoe. It’s about the shoe adapting to the child and their real life.”

A label like "barefoot," "respectful," or any other can guide you about certain general characteristics of a model, but it doesn't replace the essential step of trying that specific shoe on your child's unique foot.

Two children of the same age may need different sizes, widths, or shapes, and that doesn't mean "something is wrong" with either of them: it means their feet are, literally, their own.

The problem of turning information into an obstacle course

Not many years ago, almost no one talked about children's biomechanics when buying shoes. Now there are scientific reviews, professional guides, and a lot of informative content on the subject. That's good news: it means we know more about how a child's foot moves today than a generation ago.

The problem arises when all that information, instead of helping you make more informed decisions, starts to generate confusion and guilt. When any small deviation from "the ideal" becomes insecurity and a cause for alarm. Or when it seems there is only one correct answer valid for all children in the world.

I mean, if at some point you feel like you need a comparison chart with twenty columns to decide between two pairs of sneakers for school, we've probably overcomplicated the conversation.

Having more information should help you choose better, not make you feel like there's one perfect shoe out there and if you don't find it, you're failing as a mother or father.

This is, in fact, the conversation that prompted me to write this post: to bring the principles of footwear that respects natural foot movement into the real life of each child, with their schedules, their school, their activity, and their own feet, instead of presenting it as a single, rigid formula.

We don't need perfection, we need discernment

You don't have to choose your child's shoes at random, or because they're the prettiest, but you also don't need to chase a perfect shoe that, probably, doesn't exist as a universal concept.

What does help is understanding a few things: that fit matters more than any label, that freedom of movement should be considered, that the context of use changes which priorities weigh more, and that each foot—specifically your child's—has the final say on whether that shoe works or not.

Ultimately, the idea is quite simple, even if the children's footwear industry seems to complicate it with so many options and features: it's not about the child adapting to the shoe. It's about the shoe adapting to the child and their real life.

Armando Bastida – Pediatric Nurse

License No.: 025593

References

1. Wegener C, Hunt AE, Vanwanseele B, Burns J, Smith RM. Effect of children's shoes on gait: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Foot and Ankle Research. 2011;4:3. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3031211/

2. Xu D, Quan W, Zhou H, Sun D, Baker JS, Gu Y. Understanding the Role of Children's Footwear on Children's Feet and Gait Development: A Systematic Scoping Review. Healthcare (Basel). 2023;11(10):1418. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10218108/

3. Wilson H, et al. The impact of shoe flexibility on gait, pressure and muscle activity of young children: a systematic review. Journal of Foot and Ankle Research. 2019;12:47. https://jfootankleres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13047-019-0365-7

4. Guidelines for Recommended Footwear for Healthy Children: A Rapid Scoping Review. Children (Basel). 2025;12(7). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12249973/

5. Anthropometric Foot Variations in Children: A Cross-Sectional Study Supporting Sex-Based Last Design. 2025. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40746028/

6. Hollander K, et al. Growing-up (habitually) barefoot influences the development of foot and arch morphology in children and adolescents. Scientific Reports. 2017;7:8079. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5556098/

7. Comparison of barefoot and habitual footwear use: how conventional and barefoot shoes affect foot and gait characteristics in pre-school children. Journal of Foot and Ankle Research. 2022. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9398026/