For nearly 2 months now, I’ve been hearing my daughter talk about the “zipper” shoes. They are Billy Footwear shoes, designed for kids who wear AFOs. They look SO cool.
Today, both pairs arrived at long last, and we made the hour+ drive to the mall. Amy was having a good few moments, so she and her little brother switched places.
We arrived at Nordstrom’s, and they couldn’t find her shoes anywhere. One pair was finally located, and they were falling all over themselves to find the other pair.
We slipped the first pair on her regular foot, and she was in love. The zipper was stiff, but after zipping and unzipping several times, it began to loosen. She couldn’t quite pull it herself, but I was sure it would ease with time.
After they searched for a few more minutes for the smaller pair, Amy’s begging to try the other (big) shoe got to me. I relented, and slipped it on. It surprised me that her brace didn’t go right in, and it needed a tiny bit of angling. Her brace was measuring at 9.5, and this shoe was an 11. Once her foot was in? It felt pretty good, but I still had to zip it, and it wasn’t happening. ?
Then I remembered that Billy shoes have removable insoles. So I pulled it out, untied the laces, and through an Act of Congress, it zipped! Woohoo! So I tied the laces nice and snug.
They looked amazing. ❤️
Since the zipper loosened after a couple pulls on the other foot, I decided to do the same to this one. It unzipped easily, but zipping it was a struggle. Then it zipped… sorta. The area with the most strain across the middle of the foot, the zipper gaped open, then reconnected when there was less strain.
I tried fixing it, but every time, the teeth failed to connect, unless I took her foot out. Nordstrom’s offered to attempt to alter the shoe somehow, but they couldn’t. They offered to order shoes a size larger, but now we’re talking about shoes 2.5 sizes too big. That’s well into trip-hazard/clown-shoe territory.
I told Amy we couldn’t get she zipper shoes. She cried, hugged me, and sobbed into my neck. “But I loooooove my zipper shoes!” It was too much. The stress of the last two weeks overwhelmed me, and I cried too. Over a shoe. I am so embarrassed.
Truly, I think they would have worked fine, but her brace is so weird the way it’s cocked up like this:
Was this not the case, I think it would have been okay with the insole removed. It’s too bad that Amy’s brace has to be so funky, but hopefully that will not always be the case. So, just because it doesn’t work for us, doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. I will try these shoes again once her foot doesn’t need to be cocked like this.
Anyways, a woman from kids shoes arrived with balloons for the kids. Amy’s brother was oblivious, but Amy lifted her tear filled eyes and widely smiled. “Can I have a balloon?”
Balloons in hand, we trekked up the the third floor where we tried:
-Converse with Velcro closures (nope)
-several styles of Plae shoes (nope)
-a whole bunch of wide-width styles in several brands I don’t remember (nope)
-classic, laced, low-top Converse. 10.5, on both feet. Finally, a winner
Except… they were white. She decided she hated white. ? Instead she chose red,
which was out of stock.
Of course it was.
So we ordered them, and since we know they fit, I had them sent to the house. What do you think happened when I tried to leave the store without zipper shoes OR her new Red Shoes?
It was not pretty.
I got her out the door on the promise of food, and riding the carousel. 
Happy girl. After we had lunch, I almost got her out the door before she remembered her new shoes. All eyes were on me as I fireman-carried my tantruming child out of the mall. “BUT YOU PROMISED I COULD HAVE NEW SHOES!!!”
I blame my mother. Amy’s Grandma loves shoes too. *sigh* There has to be an easier way to do this. In the meantime, we will have to wait until sometime after Christmas to see her new shoes.
