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Purchasing infant shoes: attitudes of parents, pediatricians, and store managers
Insights
Infant shoe purchases often occur before walking, with many shoes featuring high tops and hard soles. Pediatricians generally agree on the adequacy of simple sneakers, contrary to parental and sales staff beliefs.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Consumer Behavior
- Footwear Science
Background:
- Infant footwear choices significantly impact early development and parental spending.
- Understanding the influences on infant shoe purchasing decisions is crucial for health and economic guidance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate parental purchasing habits for infant shoes.
- To analyze the characteristics and costs of infant footwear.
- To compare the opinions of parents, pediatricians, and shoe store managers on infant shoe suitability.
Main Methods:
- Surveys administered to 104 parents, 127 pediatricians, and 36 shoe store managers.
- Data collected on infant age at first shoe purchase, shoe characteristics, and cost.
- Information sources for parents regarding shoe purchases were identified.
Main Results:
- First walking shoes purchased around 8.1 months at an average cost of $14.56.
- Most shoes had laces, high tops, hard soles, and arch supports.
- Many infants received shoes before walking or standing, with higher costs for pre-walking shoes.
- Parents relied more on friends/relatives than physicians for information; salesperson advice correlated with higher spending.
- Pediatricians favored inexpensive sneakers, but this view was not widely shared by sales staff or parents.
Conclusions:
- Infant footwear acquisition often precedes developmental milestones like walking.
- There is a significant discrepancy between pediatrician recommendations for simple footwear and the preferences/beliefs of parents and salespersons.
- Further education is needed to align parental and sales staff understanding of appropriate infant footwear with pediatric recommendations.
Abstract:
Questionnaires designed to collect data about the purchase of shoes for normal infants were completed by 104 parents in a university ambulatory unit, 127 practicing pediatricians, and 36 shoe store managers. Infants received their first pair of walking shoes at an average age of 8.1 months (range: 4 to 12 months) and at an average cost of $14.56 (range: $2 to $43). Most of these shoes had laces (95%), high tops (87%), hard soles (74%), and special arch supports (50%). Of the 104 children, 73 had shoes before they were walking (average cost: $13.21) and 35 wore walking shoes before they were even standing (average cost: $12.68). Parents obtained much more information about shoes from friends and relatives than from physicians. Those parents who obtained most of their information from salespersons spent the most for shoes. The average cost of shoes recommended by store managers was $18.74. Although 77% of pediatricians felt that inexpensive canvas sneakers are adequate, only 28% of the salespersons and 37% of the parents believed that wearing sneakers is healthy.