Kids 4.5 is women’s 6. They are cheaper and sometimes wider and harder to find.
I wore youth jellies sandals from Payless to my wedding, in case anyone wants to know how old I am.
They gave me terrible blisters and I threw them out soon after.
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It looks like you are a 7 youth or men’s! So some brands will cover you as youth and some as men’s! Much easier to get wide shoes due to sexism
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I just bought a second pair for my “inside shoes” because I need support and my feet are freezing all the time. I have little ankle boots (with vibram soles) for inside now, and my big awesome mid calf boots for 9 months of the year outside. I got them on sale, there might be some on sale still (???) (to be fair I got them about a month ago, they were a christmas gift to myself). I bought a spare pair of insoles at the same time. 
because I wear these and the boots every single day.
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This mirrors my approach I think- I tend to think “unnatural shoes for unnatural surfaces”. If I’m going to be walking on concrete for a long time, or standing on tile, I’ll go with a more structured and higher stack shoe than otherwise. At home I’m barefoot and short walks/reasonable trails/etc I do minimalist shoes. Whatever I wear, I like it zero drop and need a wide toe.
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Oh yes, I wear a lot of men’s shoes. In fact husband and I wear the same size. We’ve had times one of us will buy a shoe and not like it and it becomes the other persons. This has happened both directions lol.
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Shoes. Lets get some shoes. These shoes are $300, these shoes are $300 Fing dollars.
The shoes I am most familiar with are Hoka and Altra. I had to switch away from Altra because it was causing me too much calf pain, especially on any uphill efforts. I still wear my Altra Escalante’s as a rotation in my walking/running but usually for shorter stuff.
Hoka - I really like Clifton and Bondi. They have many options too though! I know Brooks and ON Clouds are both very popular and many people enjoy them. Every shoe model (usually udpated every 1-3 years) can be different too. One year the Cliftons may work great and the next they may be terrible.
I think something else to consider is that every shoe has a shelf life. If you are wearing your shoes beyond the life of the cushion or support it can wear in areas that can cause problems. This is dependent on many factors (size and shape of your foot, your weight compared to the size and shape of your foot, the technology in the shoe, etc.). I had a pair of Altra Torrins that lasted 80 miles and the foam had completely collapsed. Altra actually reimbursed me because they had a lot of problems with that model and year. It was worse than zero drop, it was negative drop, lol.
A good way to measure if your shoe has reached it’s shelf life is to have a new pair on hand (or go to the store) and if you think you’re at the end of a shoe, put on the new ones. If the new ones feel NIGHT AND DAY different, then ditch the old ones, even if other traditional measures don’t indicate you need new ones (tread wear, overall appearance, mileage if you’re crazy like me and track that.) Nothing matters as much as feel for the age of your shoes.
My house shoes are oofos: https://www.oofos.com/ they make a huge difference in my back for standing around the house.
I highly recommend going to a running shoe store or REI or other outdoor store and try on a ton of different brands and styles. Each brand has their performance shoe, carbon plate shoe, pronation shoe, high cushion, low cushion, etc. Shoe technology has ERUPTED in the last 10 years and there are many options. It can help if you know shoes that have or have not worked in the past. Running shoe store may be better than REI because all they sell and know is shoes but I have had good experiences with both.
ALSO - if you have some shoes to rotate between it can help extend the life of them allowing them to “recover” between wears. It can also keep your feet muscles constantly adjusting and not getting to used to one thing.
I am not a shoe expert, just sharing my experiences 
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Minimalist and zero drop shoes are awful for me. Due to waves hand at entire body I also require cushioning with a stiffer sole to help take the impact off my waves hand at entire body.
Random but have you tried On brand tennis shoes? I like them even better than Hoka!
Re: wearing kids shoes. I have tiny feet and can easily fit kids shoes but I don’t usually buy them and here’s why bc this is a shoe thread now and I’m living for it. I worked selling shoes for a few years, fwiw. Kids shoes are made with much cheaper construction and materials, intentionally. Since kids grow out of shoes quickly parents don’t mind that they fall apart fast. Children’s feet are also different than adult feet and typically kids’ shoes will not have the same level of support. Kids bones are literally more malleable so in general they require less support and the footbed is often kind of uniformly flat and squishy rather than built around a shape. Sometimes there’s a bump for the arch, but that’s usually foam, and an adult weighing person will smash that shit down fast. Additionally the shape of the foot is a little different, which is why kids shoes have a wide toe box but they also have a wider heel, and many adults will experience slipping in the heel if they wear kids shoes. For most adults buying kids shoes will not save them money due to the inferior construction and fit.
Thank you for coming to the least necessary ted talk ever.
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Not least necessary, this was really informative! It also reaffirmed that I made the right choice in buying slightly pricey brand new shoes from BillyFootwear (slightly pricey = not Walmart/Payless cheap but normal for brand new kids sneakers) for Kiddo and I need to buy them again in the future. They zipper on, though, which is cool. Maybe I’ll buy in adult sizes from them in the future because I usually can’t be arsed to tie my shoes, as is evidenced by years of tying my shoes in the car instead of doing it in the house before I get into the car like a sane person.
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The wide toe but loose heel/slipping is a problem I even have with adult shoes! Wide sizes are just wide across the board in a way that makes it hard for them to fit me. I basically have duck shaped feet at this point. Such a struggle to find things that fit well. (And this is also why I desperately need to replace one pair of my shoes and simply Have Not.)
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I need some help finding a solution to the heap of hats and leashes on the top of our “shoe nook”. See the pic below - to the left is the back door, to the right is the basement door and the picture is taken from the kitchen. When we remodeled, I had them steal some space from a bathroom on the other side of the wall in order to create a space for the shoes and boots that congregated in the very tight area by the back door. That part has worked well. Trimming it out in wood helped to minimize the view of the shoes. But the top is always a mess. I’m ready to move the mirror (which I always liked in that spot because it’s dark in that corner and I really like the mirror) and find some kind of solution to hang sundry hats and dog leashes. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. We can make white or wood tone work as there is a variety of finishes already in the room.
Nook is 38 inches wide, opening is 27 inches wide.
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A bunch of hooks. They can possibly even go all around the mirror. I’ll post a picture of our entry way hooks later, we’ve got a bunch and they’re great.
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Team hooks! And then if you need spots for say gloves, you can hang stuff like the little pouches and hanging baskets ikea sells. I find it’s a good system for flexing between seasons and ages as needs change.
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Agreed, this was super helpful! I am extremely rough on shoes for whatever reason, so I definitely want to stay on the more durable side of the spectrum. I have not tried On shoes - will have to do so next time I’m in the market for tennis shoes!
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For my fellow wide forefoot, narrow heel peeps: these Madewell Sneaker Boots were a surprise hit. They have the widest forefoot out of all the shoes I currently own, and the ankle lacing means no heel slippage. It’s a slight pain to put on due to the 2 rows of hooks, but I wanted high tops for winter weather. They are the only shoes I can walk in for long distances these days without pain (PF and added weight from 3rd trimester). (And my others are fairly legit “supportive shoe” brands like New Balance, Forsake, Keen, Hokas, Blundstones.) Traction is surprisingly good - I did a 2-mile hike in the Adirondacks with snow and wet rocks, and the grip on them was comparable to my Vibram soled sneaker boots (which are now sadly a bit snug across the forefoot).
I had the low-cut version last summer and replaced those laces with no-tie elastic, which pretty much made them perfect everyday shoes for me.
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Hooks!
The four hooks thing on the right side of this photo could maybe go above the mirror if people can reach stuff up there? Then smaller hooks on the sides. (Seeing this photo is reminding me that we should purge some of those cloth masks.) I think these all came from Home Depot.
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My phone literally just died in my hand. I need one ASAP, ideally several hours before the funeral I’m attending in just under 24 hours that we were going to stream on my phone. Options I’m looking at are Pixels because I don’t want to learn new things. Pixel 6a seems reasonably priced at just under $600AUD and I can grab one this afternoon. Is there a reason I would want the 7 or 7pro at about $1000 AUD? All I can think is the macro on the 7pro but also I have little hands and really if I’m doing macro I’m either looking at other people’s photos or I probably could just get a nice digital camera for that extra $400AUD?
I realised everyone will probably be asleep still when I go out and buy the phone in half an hour and Ponder is pushing towards the 7pro because I normally regret not buying the fancy one. ugh. Goodbye money. thx for following the mini saga as I break down… who knows where the money is coming from in the budget…so much for the iPad I was going to buy for work this year.
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That is really awful terrible timing.
But thank you for streaming. My cousin and her bf have had to stream 2 funerals for me recently and I don’t know how to explain how grateful I am
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Getting the 7pro seems like a good move. I hope the phone transfer goes smoothly so you don’t have to spend too much time on it, your plate is already full enough right now.
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I am glad your family has been able to stream for you. The funeral home streams but we are fairly sure my stream will be higher quality and I’d prefer us to share as much of the funeral as possible since she can’t be there. And then we’ll have an extra celebration of life when she gets back. Just realised I have no information about the wake. are we having one? I don’t know.
So far so good. I called ahead to make sure the shop would have one before we dragged the children out, since it was already dinnertime and I have other events tomorrow morning for work. They had one, I briefly thought I wanted to see one first, and then realised I am buying it regardless so hand over the money. We got the kids a couple of toys and fast food dinner since there was the aforementioned dragging out dinnertime. Money well spent.
What absolutely amazingly shit timing, though. Saturday would have been FINE to break, phone. It could have been worse. It could have died tomorrow on my way to the funeral.
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