Focus on School Shoes: The Best Barefoot School Shoes for 2024

 With school shoe season fast approaching yet again we thought it would be timely to do a roundup of all our school shoe options for you. The choice of a school shoe is such an important one as your child will likely wear their school shoes for longer than any other item of footwear, often upwards of 35 hours a week. Opting for a barefoot school shoe is therefore critical to ensure that you don't restrict and compromise growing feet, which are vulnerable to external influences and moulding by tight, ill-fitting shoes.

As ever we have been scouring the market looking for the best barefoot school shoes to add to our collection and ensure we have lots of choice this season. We have good stock of our most popular school brands, including PLAE, Froddo, Vivobarefoot and Paperkranes, and have some great new options to share with you.

What’s new for 2024

We have managed to restock on one of our newest barefoot brands for school shoes, Young Soles, and are loving their Holly shoes and Pele Sneaker. 

Top left Young Soles Holly Shoe, Bottom Right Young Soles Pele Sneaker.

 Young Soles are a lovely combination of heritage styling, premium super soft leathers and a great barefoot sole unit which is zero drop, 4mm thin and super flexible so they make the perfect barefoot school shoe. If you find Bobux a good fit then you are sure to like Young Soles.

Young Soles Darcey Shoes

We particularly love the new Darcey T bar barefoot school shoe. Foot shaped, flexible and oh so pretty too.

Young Soles Oliver Shoes                         Young Soles Holly Shoes                              Young Soles Pele Shoes                             Young Soles Darcey Shoes

Also new for 2024 are the Camper Peu Black, a great addition to the popular Peu range designed in all black and suitable for school use. The leather is lovely and soft with easy access elasticated laces and the super flexible Peu sole.

Camper Peu Shoes in Black

Finally we are delighted to have added the Be Lenka Bounce to our range, a great new barefoot school shoe. The Bounce has been popular in other colours but this is the first time they've produced it in black and we're thrilled to be stocking it. They are a great extra wide fit for the wider foot, with all the flexibility and comfort we come to expect from Be Lenka footwear.

Be lenka Bounce Shoes in Black

Recommendations for Specific Foot Types

Below we highlight the best options and recommendations for different widths of foot.

Narrower feet

For narrower feet have a look at the range from Bobux which includes smarter and sporty options along with Mary Jane and T-Bar styles in leather and Patent.

Bobux Venture Patent Shoes                             Bobux Quest Shoes                              Bobux Rova Sandals                         Bobux Brave Patent Shoes

Medium feet

For medium widths, our go-to brands are Plae, PaperKrane, Petasil and Young Soles. Between these brands we now have a great choice of styles for every taste.

Petasil Dash School Shoes                     Paperkranes Atlas Mary Jane Shoes                     Pediped Barbara Shoes                         Plae Nat Black Shoes

Medium to wide feet

For medium to wide feet check out Vivobarefoot and the new Camper Peu.

Vivobarefoot Addis School Shoes                   Camper Peu Shoes in Black             Vivobarefoot Addis Wyn School shoes                Vivobarefoot Ludo School Shoes

Wide feet

For wider feet Froddo Barefoot is our most popular brand of school shoes and suits a wider foot really nicely.

Froddo Mary Jane Shoes Flowers            Froddo Barefoot Lace Up School Shoes             Froddo Barefoot School Sports Shoe                Froddo Nina Barefoot Tbar Shoe

Extra-wide feet

For extra-wide school shoes the Freet City shoe has long been a favourite and has the advantage of being a rare vegan option.

Freet City Shoes

More recently we have added the Be Lenka Bounce to the range which is a great extra wide fit.

Be lenka Bounce Shoes in Black

Accessories

Don't forget to pick up some of those school essential accessories whilst buying your shoes. A must have is a pack of our handy shoe labels. These allow your youngster should be able to keep track of their footwear on those busy school cloakrooms!

                                School Shoe Labels 

We also stock the lovely wool tights and socks from MP Denmark in their premium superwash wool to ensure extra warmth this winter.

MP Denmark Selma Knee Socks Grey           MP Denmark Wool Rib Tights Black        MP Denmark Wool Rib Socks          MP Denmark Wool Selma Knee Socks Navy

We have a wide range of shoe polishes and waterproofing options to help take care of your school shoes and ensure maximum life out of them. You can shop the full range HERE.

          Famaco Patent Conditioner                 Famaco Eco Protect Waterstop             Chain Bridge Honey Farm Beeswax Shoe Polish              Famaco Eco Cream

Blog Posts:

If you need more help finding the right barefoot school shoes we have several blogs about school shoes with lots of useful information to help you find that perfect pair!

1) Comparing the Width of our School Shoes

Whilst the above is a useful summary of the relative widths of our range we have done a separate blog post looking at the different widths of the school shoes and the issues to consider. Read the blog HERE

2) PE Shoes and Plimsolls

We have done a separate blog post on what we recommend as a barefoot alternative to a Plimsoll for indoor and PE use. Read the blog HERE 

3) Shoe Care

With your child in their school shoes for so long every day good care is essential to maximise durability. Ensure shoes are dried thoroughly after use and regularly cleaned and polished. For more information have a look at our shoe care guide for detailing advise on each shoe type. Read the blog HERE