I hate kids trainers.
There, I said it.
I know, I know – they’re practical and sensible and necessary.
But I’m sorry – they’re ugly.
No matter how often my boys would fall gladly on a pair in the shoe shop and declare that THESE were the ones they’ve been waiting for, I never understood it.
And girls trainers are possibly worse, splashed all over with lurid pink, often accented with pink glitter and shiny sequins.
I go with them… but I don’t have to like them, ‘k?
So when I saw these SprintZone’s in Clarks, I might’ve whooped.
Just LOOK at them!
(please note – look at MY pictures; the Clarks website shows them as pretty but pale and slightly-uninteresting pastel-coloured. But they’re not. They’re a rich beautiful turquoise with those splashes of fluorescent orange. They gorgeous).
And my daughter loves them too – she hates big heavy trainers, she walks strangely in them – the way a toddler does the first time they feel the weight of shoes on their feet (probably because she spends as much of her life as possible barefoot) and feeling like they weigh her down and she can’t run in them. But these SprintZones are so light, she says they feel like she’s wearing nothing (which is her preferred state, of course).
The uppers are a super light and airy mesh, extra flexible for any activity – she wore them straight out the box to walk the dog with no socks, and they didn’t rub anywhere. And the Air Spring FX means that despite not having a big ole clumpy rubber sole they feel light and bouncy underfoot. The moulding reminds me of the ‘bumpers’ I wore in my youth, which never seemed to separate the way my kids lived-in shoes do – and of course the ‘real’ laces finally provide her with the opportunity to perfect her lightning-speed lace tying.
And on top of all that, when they get muddy they can just be thrown in the washing machine!
I mean seriously – what is not to love about these? They’re the perfect light summer shoe for an active small person, and are always Bear’s first choice of footwear n matter what she’s wearing or where we’re going.
The Clarks SprintZone Jnr is currently £32, and being Clarks it comes in half sizes too.
