Bushwalk Australia

Hi there.

I'm gently encouraging my partner to do some bushwalking with me. One hurdle though is that she is very small in stature. Consequently, her feet are very small as well. We recently visited a couple of hiking supply / shoe shops in Brisbane, and her feet were way too small for any of the women's shoes they stocked, and the kid's shoes were limited in range and not really fit for purpose. She seems to be the equivalent of a US Women's size 4, or US Kid's size 2. Her foot length is about 20cm.

I have taken a look at the REI website, and can see they have an excellent range of children's bushwalking shoes and boots.

Are there any outlets with a similar range in Australia?

Many thanks.

you will probably be forced to shop overseas online as australian shops, in my experience do not cater well for extremes of size.
My wife did find some small boots in Mountain Designs in Canberra but she tends to buy off amazon (when they used to ship to aus).
I think fruugo ship small sizes and the british online shops often stock a range - their postage is quite reasonable.
The problem is that you might get the wrong size and have to ship back, which can be an expensive exercise.

wiggle.com has trail runners down to a UK 4 which is probably a US 4.5. - postage is included
http://www.wiggle.com.au/salomon-womens ... es-ss15-1/

cotswoldoutdoor has an actual boot on sale in size UK 3.5:
http://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/au/?fuse ... 00189%257d

I have often shopped UK online (and the US when the exchange was reasonable) postage and speed is often great.

Trouble is that footwear is not something you want to buy without trying.

Buyimg online is risky but wrong sizes can be returned.

The alternative is probably going without, NNW.

Australian outdoor shops do not cater for very small feet.

by the time its all said and done, would customs be just as economically feasible? I don't know if there is a cobbler in bris, but it might be worth a shot.

Hi logicalor,

Just wondering, if your partner is still at the toe in the water stage, maybe it'd be worth buying some lower end boots to start with. I'm not sure what 'not fit for purpose' issues you found, so maybe there's a problem. E.g:

http://www.raysoutdoors.com.au/Product/Wild-Country-Coola-Hiking-Boot-Kids/37275909?menuFrom=5041044

I vaguely recollect either Anaconda or Allgoods (you may have another equivalent in QLD) also carry kids' walking boots with decent tread - i.e. the more generic outdoor stores rather than the 'specialist' stores. You can even get good hiking socks now for small feets in Australia!

Thanks all for your responses!

slparker wrote:wiggle.com has trail runners down to a UK 4 which is probably a US 4.5. - postage is included
http://www.wiggle.com.au/salomon-womens ... es-ss15-1/

cotswoldoutdoor has an actual boot on sale in size UK 3.5:
http://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/au/?fuse ... 00189%257d

I have often shopped UK online (and the US when the exchange was reasonable) postage and speed is often great.

Thanks for that - yeah, Cotswold looks like a potentially good source. They have a number of children's boots / shoes for sale which would probably fit ok.

north-north-west wrote:Trouble is that footwear is not something you want to buy without trying.

slparker wrote:Buying online is risky but wrong sizes can be returned.

Yeah this is the big downside of sourcing from overseas, because returning would be quite a hassle. I guess onselling is a possibility, but that potentially opens up more complications!

Gadgetgeek wrote:by the time its all said and done, would customs be just as economically feasible? I don't know if there is a cobbler in bris, but it might be worth a shot.

Thought about that too. I imagine that would be significant expense and effort, probably more than sourcing from overseas.

Tortoise wrote:Just wondering, if your partner is still at the toe in the water stage, maybe it'd be worth buying some lower end boots to start with.

Yeah, probably. Re: "Fit for purpose", aiming for something that is light, a bit grippy, decent ankle support and a bit of water resistance. The first walk we'll be doing is a pretty gentle Lower Portals in a bit over a week's time. I figure, if she starts walking regularly, for the next year or so she'll probably top out at walks with a Brisbane Bushwalkers grading of 5 - so walks like Mt Greville, maybe Mt Maroon, the Cougals, and some creek walks.

Anaconda is a good suggestion for generics. It looks like Macpac stocks a few children's varieties which may fit too, so we will pop over their Fortitude Valley store to see what they have in stock.

If that doesn't work out, and she does decide to bushwalk more regularly, then we may have to bite the bullet and just try some mail orders and see how we go. Once we get a good feel for a brand, I imagine there wouldn't be much difference in size between shoes within that brand as new iterations are released.