Two Different Opinions on Stride Rite’s Natural Motion Walkers

Stride Rite: You have a new fan.

I hate buying baby shoes. There, I admitted it. They never fit the way they should. Lets face it, most kids have anatomically weird feet. They are either way wide, very thick or abnormally small, or a combination of the three. My kid has thick and small feet, so when Stride Rite sent me a pair of Natural Motion Walkers to review, I was skeptical. The only shoes I have ever really loved before were the soft sole ones that stayed on with elastic, and these shoes had leather sides, rubber soles and a tongue. There was no way they were going on, or if they did go on they would fall off right away.

I could not have been more wrong. These shoes have the widest opening for a foot I have ever seen. They are incredibly easy to put on, even when your baby is less than thrilled with being laid down to have shoes put on. Even more miraculous, they don’t fall off. Period. And the rubber on the soles is so flexible that it’s like having suede sole shoes. My son will wear them all day, can’t take them off, doesn’t pull on them and they really seem to help out in his daily endeavor to learn to walk. I am overjoyed with their performance, and the fact that they are some of the cutest shoes I have ever seen only adds to my immense satisfaction with this product.

If all that were not enough, they have fantastic customer service. I was initially sent the wrong size and one simple phone call remedied the problem and my new pair arrived post haste. Stride Rite, I’ll be coming back and bringing some friends.

by Andi

I’ve pretty much always been a fan of Stride Rite shoes since my son started wearing them a couple years back. They were the only brand I could find that carried xxw that fit great. I was excited to get the chance to try the Natural Motion Walkers from Stride Rite for my 14-month-old daughter who is just starting to walk.

I don’t think that these shoes help your child learn to walk that well. They have great skid protection on the bottom, but because of this my daughter seemed to get them caught easily since she doesn’t pick her feet up perfectly yet and discouraged her from continuing to try. They are also a bit heavy on her feet making it harder to get around with her just learning to walk. I found that when she wore these she definitely would try to crawl to get where she wanted to go or would easily take them off with the Velcro.

I think these shoes would be great for a child that is still a beginning walker but has already learned the ropes of balancing and getting around that way. However, for a child that still wants to crawl with a few steps here or there, it’s better to go with something lighter like a soft-soled shoe.

by Andrea