Light-Up Sneakers: The Key To A 5-Year-Old’s Heart

For the past three years, my son has worn Stride Rite sneakers. For one thing, a local shoe store (Kidz Shoe Revue in Centreville) provides excellent shoe-fitting service — something important to ME, but more important to HIM, they make sneakers with trucks and fire trucks on the side that light up. Last year we went to near Def-Con 5 status when just before school started, we could not find any of the Stride Rite fire engine light-up sneakers in size 11.5 anywhere. Not at our favorite store, not at the Stride Rite in the mall, not online — nowhere. They were simply sold out everywhere.

You have to understand, JavaBoy asks for so very little, that when he has his heart set on something, I will move heaven and earth to get it for him. He is the kind of kid who can watch me buy a toy for his sister, and when I ask him if he’d like to pick something out (because I try to be even handed) he’ll say, “no, I really don’t need anything right now, I have toys.” He generally sets his heart on one thing that he wants for Christmas and that’s all he’ll ask for rather than having a long list like most kids and it is often something very simple like a particular book. He’s just not the kind of kid who asks for much.

So last year I drove 20 miles to an outlet mall to get the very last pair of size 11.5 fire engine light-up shoes in easily a 50 mile radius of our home. And it made him happy and he’s worn the heck out of those shoes. I also knew those shoes would be his last light-up fire truck shoes because they stop making them in size 12.

So I’ve been looking since the beginning of summer for a new set of light-up sneakers for him, and kept coming up empty. We went to shoe store after shoe store and could not find anything that lit-up (his requirement) and was light colored (my requirement) in his size. I finally had a heart-to-heart with him about The Shoe Situation.

“Honey, you are just growing so big, that you are now getting into Really Big Boy shoes and they just don’t make light-up shoes in Really Big Boy sizes. So we’re going to have to get sneakers that don’t light up, okay? Mommy has tried really, really hard, you know that, right?”

“Yeah, I know. Okay, I understand.”

“Okay, tomorrow we will go look for new shoes for you again.”

As it happened, we went to visit his friend JP, who happened to be wearing… Big Boy Sized Light-Up Shoes. I stopped dead in my tracks and asked his mom, “WHERE did you get those shoes?!” She told me that JP had seen a TV commercial for them and fell in love with them and that they were Skechers and that when she went to the Skechers store they had a big variety of light-up shoes in the larger sizes. Instantly JP launched into a sales pitch to JavaBoy all about Skechers. Their marketing department would be so proud. We were sold. In fact, we went to the nearby Skechers outlet straight from their house — whereupon my son found the gaudiest pair of sneakers I’ve ever seen in my life where not only the sides light up, but the Velcro strap lights up like the top of a police car. He was insanely in love with them. I was hoping for something a little less… uh… like being chased by the cops all the time. Fortunately for him they were running a buy one get one half off sale and I was able to talk him into also getting a more sedate pair that he is willing to wear when I feel the light-up shoes are a bit much. Unfortunately, his feet had grown over the past week and he needed yet an even larger size which they didn’t have in stock, but would have in a few days.

Wanna guess how many times I heard the name “Skechers” over those few days?  He’s 5-years-old and he already has become a brand loyalist.

So the day the shipment was due came, I called and indeed his size had arrived and you would’ve thought it was Christmas given how excited JavaBoy was to go get his new sneakers.  He recognized the sign before we even got to the store (mind you, he wasn’t even aware of this brand a week prior) and once he tried on the size 13s, I wasn’t sure they’d ever come off his feet again.

I’m trying to limit how much he wears them until school starts — you know so they still look new for the first day of school at least — but he still tells EVERY person he sees about his “new Skecher police car shoes.”  I’m blogging this from Birmingham where I am in town to give a presentation about creating brand enthusiasts through social media…. should I be grateful 5-year-olds are too young to blog and tweet?!    I can only imagine what they would push on each other!

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Photo from Skechers.com.  Other than having shelled out $$ for two pairs of sneakers last week, I have no relationship with Skechers.