Magazine

A mom holding tiny black and white infant sneakers with cut elastic laces

Why I Took Kitchen Scissors to My Infant's First Pair of Sneakers

I was sweating through my shirt in a Target parking lot in late October, wrestling with a foot that looked exactly like a Hawaiian sweet roll. My oldest son was eight months old, and I was determined to get him...

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Dad holding an 11-month-old baby wearing tiny flexible sneakers at a park

A clueless dad's guide to buying Nike baby shoes and apparel

We're at Washington Park in Portland, and the temperature is exactly 62.4 degrees. The sky has that flat, gray, overcast quality that makes for decent smartphone photos, which is great, because I've dressed my 11-month-old son like a backup dancer...

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Toddler taking first steps in flexible lightweight sneakers at the park

Why the Nike Swoosh 1 Changed How I Think About Baby Shoes

It was a random Tuesday, maybe 9 AM, and I was wearing leggings that definitely hadn’t been washed since Sunday. I was hovering by the microwave, nursing my third cup of aggressively mediocre dark roast, when my mother-in-law dropped a...

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A pile of baby shoes never worn sitting next to a barefoot 11-month-old

Baby Shoes Never Worn: Why Barefoot Is Always The Smart Move

I'm currently sitting cross-legged on the floor of our hallway in Portland, staring at a plastic storage bin filled to the brim with tiny, immaculate, aggressively rigid footwear. It’s raining outside, the house is hovering at exactly 68.4 degrees because...

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Toddler wearing soft knit baby shoes while walking on a wooden floor

The Truth About Baby Feet: Why Those Tiny Shoes Are a Scam

My mother-in-law held up a pair of hot pink, patent leather, miniature high heels at my baby shower like she had just extracted a rare diamond from a mine. I smiled, nodded, and immediately mentally categorized them as biohazard waste....

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A pile of brand new stiff infant footwear in a cardboard donation box

The Real Story Behind Those Unworn Infant Shoes on Resale Apps

I'm currently staring at six pairs of stiff, leather infant oxfords sitting in my donation pile. Hemingway supposedly wrote a famous six-word tragedy about unworn baby shoes, but honestly, any mom on a local buy-nothing group will tell you it's...

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A barefoot baby pulling to stand next to a pair of flexible first walker shoes.

The Real Deal on Finding Walking Shoes for Babies

I was standing in the middle of the Target shoe aisle with my oldestβ€”who's now four and still an absolute terror, bless his heartβ€”when I realized I had three completely different voices echoing in my head about what to put...

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A frustrated toddler sitting on mulch wearing unlaced baby blue Jordans and holding a Kianao blanket.

Why I Regret (And Still Love) Buying Baby Blue Jordans For My Kid

It was Tuesday, 2:14 PM, and the sun was absolutely baking the squishy rubber flooring at Centennial Park. I was wearing leggings that hadn't seen the inside of a washing machine since Sunday and an oversized Nirvana tee with a...

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A frustrated dad trying to put a tiny trainer on a toddler's squirming foot

How I Survived the Chaos of Measuring Tiny Feet

I'm currently holding a tiny, pristine canvas high-top in one hand and my daughter Maya’s fiercely clenched foot in the other. She is looking at me with the deep, pitying expression of someone watching a dog try to do long...

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