Health, Beauty and Lifestyle with Denise McNamara

Retailers may feel they are swimming against an impossible tide when it comes to competing against online shops. The amount of retailers that have closed their shutters for good in the city as well as our county towns since Covid is so disheartening.

I personally hate shopping online. Nine times out of ten it has to go back and then you’re trying to find out what company they use to do returns, whether you have to print off a returns label or bring it to a returns depot.

One Galway kids’ shoe shop is the first retailer in Ireland to offer new technology that promises to take the pain out of that.

From this week, My First Steps in the Liosbán Industrial Estate off the Tuam Road offers Sizewise, precision scanning technology that promises to revolutionise shopping for kids’ shoes online.

This award-winning app uses AI (Artificial Intelligence) to transform online footwear sizing. And it’s done using your phone. Used to great success with the Start-Rite shoe retailer in the UK, you download the SizeWise tool from a QR code and then place your child’s foot on a white A4 page. You then line up the camera to take a picture of both left and right feet, giving you the length and width of each foot and an overall size for a shoe.

The tool then offers up suggestions in stock at My First Steps based on the size for you to consider.

When I read about this, I was a little sceptical. As anyone who has ever brought children for shoes knows, one shoe may fit like a dream, while a shoe the same size but another style may be too long or too wide.

“I agree, nothing beats or can replace an in-store fitting with a trained professional, but as a parent myself, I know that’s not always practical, especially if you have a child with additional needs or live somewhere more remote, so this is the next best thing – or at least we hope it is,” explains owner Alison McGrath.

“The measuring part is incredibly accurate for us. We’re the first shop using SizeWise to offer 12 brands and it will give you options of different colours, different styles to match that fit, all carefully selected. There is also the ‘livechat’ option so we can offer our expertise based on personal circumstances – your child might have an extremely slim ankle, an upturned toe.”

The introduction of the SizeWize tool has been a big investment time-wise rather than money-wise as it’s still in the early stages of development by the Dublin-based business.

Alison had her own lightbulb moment of opening a children’s shoe shop in Ennis after bringing her first child for that all-important first pair.

“To say the experience was dismal was an understatement – we were shoved in a corner, barely measured and offered two pairs of pink shoes as quick as you can and shoved out the door. I remember going with my sister’s daughter in the UK and it was completely different.

“There was no education, nobody explained what was happening. I’m passionate about health and shoes are a key part of children’s health. Bricks and mortar businesses have to offer that bit more. We have big open spaces, bright colours, a little play area. We will never rush the experience. All our staff undergo a lot of training to ensure the child gets the best possible shoe for them.

“Parents can take a picture of their kids in their first shoes for the Instagram wall as a keepsake, they get a certificate for the memory box, we have lollipops on the counter to make it all-round child-centred experience.”

Alison was born in Scotland, grew up in the UK and came to the west of Ireland on a student placement when she met her Co Clare husband-to-be and never left.

While she has no connection with Galway, she knew immediately she wanted to open a second branch there and got great advice from the owner of the Perfect Fit shoe shop on Abbeygate Street, which closed down in the pandemic.

“We are the only standalone children’s shoe shop in all of Galway city or county. We opened Ennis in 2022 and in Galway exactly a year later. It’s been a steep learning curve and busy – our girls are three and five. But it’s the best decision we’ve ever made,” she enthuses.

“I’m so passionate about children’s shoes and how important they are for children’s development. The amount of children we’ve seen with problematic feet since Covid really brings that home.

“So many ingrown toenails, hammer toes, corns, skin blisters – things that you shouldn’t be seeing on kids. Research by the UK College of Podiatry has found that 67% of children are wearing the wrong size – it was a real scandal they didn’t keep kids’ shoe shops open in the lockdown.

“Parents had to buy cheap shoes, shoes the wrong size because they couldn’t get measured. Buy cheap and you buy twice – or you end up with bills from a podiatrist or physiotherapist.”

Visit www.myfirststeps.ie or check out the shops in the Liosbán Industrial Estate or Ennis.

Pictured: My First Steps owner Alison McGrath in her shop in the Liosbán Industrial Estate, Galway.