No elastic on these ankles!

Buskins are a soft soled shoes from Australia that I just became aware of only just recently.

They are a bit unusual as most soft soled shoes use an elastic band around the top of the shoe (usually very artfully hidden but there) to hold the shoes on the child's feet. Buskins on the other hand do not feature any elastic bands and any elastic they might have are cross the top of the foot instead of around the ankle.

I was really interested in this as though I would never trade Connor's soft soled shoes in for the world, he is limited as to how long he can wear them every day depending on how the eczema around his ankles is doing that day.

We got a pair of the Buskins deck shoes and set off to Chicago for the wedding we attended recently. He wore them a large majority of the four days we spent in Chicago, and they certainly did not irritate his eczema as much as a regular soft sole and he wore them all day for the most part a good portion of the time while we were there. There is elastic on the deck shoe, but instead of going around the ankle it goes across the top of the foot only in the corners of the shoe to keep the shoe itself on.

The only real downfall to the deck shoe at least is Connor had a fairly easy time taking them off as his feet are fairly narrow and the deck shoe was not tight across his foot though he did fill out the length very well. If he had a standard chubby toddler foot this would have not been an issue but Connor is really slender all over (with exception to his head which is large.. lol). If we had tested a pair with Velcro I think they would have stayed on much better minus the fact that Connor can remove Velcro shoes when he has the chance.

Overall I am very happy with them especially as an alternative to the days his ankles are giving him problems. They are super cute and it certainly gives you a ton more options in the soft soled shoes instead of the classic look of most soft soled shoes. Its also a great alternative if you want a more adult looking shoe.

Buskins are available directly on their website for around $28 per pair!