I set out on what I thought was an easy mission: find a well made pair of plain brown leather shoes for Big Picky. Easier said than done. There were and abundance of brown shoes with pink flowers or contrasting stitching, but I wanted plain brown. These would be her everyday shoe. I wanted to be able to polish them without avoiding stitching or flowers. I wanted her to wear them with red pants and pink skirts and blue jeans. I almost gave up. Then I found the Janna, by Kid Express
The Basics
The Janna is a basic brown Mary Jane made by Kid Express
The Raves
Styling: The Janna is basic, not frumpy. The other few plain shoes I found looked like grandma’s orthopedics. These are little-girl-cute. The burnished leather gives a richness and depth that a typicaly pigment based finsh lacks. One glance tells you that these are not from Payless.
Durability: One main reason I wanted a plain brown shoe was so that I could polish it after weeks of heavy-play-scuffs and make it shine enough to wear with a dress. This shoe fits that bill.
Comfortable: These shoes (referred to as her “new shoes” til the day we secretly replaced them with an identical, but one size larger, subsitute) were Big Picky’s favorite. Not because they were shiny gold and squeaked, but because they felt so good. The soles are flexible, the wide strap doesn’t dig in and the leather is sturdy, yet soft.
Colors: Kid Express offers the Janna in 14 colors. 5 of those are newbuck, 3 patent and the rest regular leather.
The Rants
Aroma: The first couple days after taking Kid Express shoes out of the box, I notice the slight aroma of the polish. I actually like the smell, but normal people others may not. It’s not strong and dissipates quickly.
Variety: These are so comfortable that this is all Big Picky wants to wear. While this has drastically decreased my shoe spending, I would really like to have a little variety. We’re on our second size of these. I’m still plotting the sandle strategy for the summer, but I’m not overly optomistic. The plot involves bribery.
Other
I purchased these, like most of Big and Lil Picky’s shoes at Endless.com.
The Verdict
I think my repeat purchase says it all. This is a great basic shoe.
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