My kids wear flexible, wide toe box, zero-drop water shoes almost exclusively day-to-day. However, they attend public school where it’s concrete, pavement, and other hard surfaces all the time. PE is no different, and they run a timed mile on a pavement parking lot every week. My older kid is a foot slapper, and I am really concerned about the stress on their growing feet from all these hard surfaces.

Hi Bea, my daughter with narrower feet like PaperKrane, Origo, Wildling Shoes, and Reima. Make sure you check out this article for our top picks for kids.

Hi! We have a list of all white barefoot shoes for kids here.

I’m always putting as my TOP recommendations the shoes that meet all healthy feet criteria. So when it comes to budget options that IMO are unequivocally good for feet the options are more limited. Jan & Jul has some caveats and for me aren’t the best you can get for the price. But if you found Jan & Jul from my site and love them I am so glad! That’s why I review all the options.

I’m always a bit disappointed in your “budget” lists for kids. My son LOVES the Jan & Jul slip on knit shoes & I love the price. We found them from a review on this site, and I’ve seen 1-off reviews of kid shoes at a similar price point. So I’m confused on why more actually affordable shoes are continuously left off compilation lists, when this site knows they exist…

Hi Mark! We haven’t had any of that yet but I would expect that if they were wearing the more subtle mainstream looking barefoot shoe options other kids wouldn’t even notice. But I guess we’ll just have to see! My oldest is 10 and he is one of those kids who just doesn’t care and is therefore hard to pick on, haha. But I fully expect my younger son, who does care, to not want to wear barefoot shoes at some point. we’ve already had some trouble finding ones he likes. I think as parents there is only so much you can do and it’s better in the long run to give them some autonomy than to force them into a lifestyle they don’t want. There are so many ways to meet in the middle. Maybe they can have some healthier pairs of shoes for certain activities and then others that are their choice for when they need to fit in (don’t we all need to fit in to some extent?).

The Xplorer is a thicker material that seems like it would be better suited for fall/winter (the Primus has some mesh/holey material). But my son has worn his Primus through fall and winter for several years. Of course in our climate we change into boots for recess and walking home, because it’s so cold and snowy. So that makes it more feasible to wear sneakers year round indoors.