Focus on School Shoes for 2025

The Best Barefoot School Shoes for 2025

With school shoe season fast approaching yet again we thought it would be timely to do a roundup of all our school shoe options for you. The choice of a school shoe is such an important one as your child will likely wear their school shoes for longer than any other item of footwear, often upwards of 35 hours a week. Opting for a barefoot school shoe is therefore critical to ensure that you don't restrict and compromise growing feet, which are vulnerable to external influences and moulding by tight, ill-fitting shoes.

As ever we have been scouring the market looking for the best barefoot school shoes to add to our collection and ensure we have lots of choice this season. We have good stock of our most popular school brands, including PLAE, Froddo, Vivobarefoot Camper and Paperkrane, and have some great new options to share with you.

What’s new for 2025

Bar3Foot

Founded in Poland, Bar3Foot is committed to producing wide-fitting, ultra-flexible, and affordable barefoot footwear and makes them a trusted choice for parents who want the best for their children's feet.

^{Bar3Foot Elf Denver Vegan School Shoes Black}

Each pair of shoes is crafted in their family workshop, with exceptional attention to detail, ensuring durable and well-made designs. Designed for wider feet Bar3Foot shoes feature one of the widest toe boxes available, with a square shape that provides ample space for proper foot development. With a 3mm thin sole unit Bar3Foot offers exceptional flexibility, allowing children to feel the ground below them, which helps improve balance, coordination and confidence in movement.

Be Lenka

Following the success of their Bounce shoe last year, Be Lenka have added the new Scoot Sneakers in black to the range, a great new barefoot school shoe.

^{Be Lenka Kids Scoot Sneakers Black}

The Scoot has been popular in other colours and is a great extra wide fit for thr wider foot, with all the flexibility and comfort we come to expect from Be Lenka footwear.

^{Be Lenka Kids Scoot Sneakers Black}

They have introduced a junior version as well so there's options for all ages, in EU sizes 35-40.

^{Be Lenka Juniors Scoot Sneakers Black}

Be Lenka have alson introduced a black version of their popular Play boots for those wo prefer an ankle boot, still in the same extra wide fit.

^{Be Lenka Kids Play Boots Black}

Bobux Alpha

New for 2025, the Bobux Alpha range marked the exciting return of Bobux Shoes to the barefoot market.

^{Bobux Alpha Hula School Shoe Black}

Designed with adventure in mind, the Bobux Alpha collection offers a fantastic barefoot concept sole unit that supports natural foot movement and encourages natural foot developement, making them an ideal choice.

^{Bobux Alpha Ripley School Shoe Black}

The Alpha sole unit features a zero-drop desing with a lovely, 6mm-thin, and flexible sole with a grippy surface for confident steps. 

^{Bobux Alpha Prime School Shoe Black}

The new school shoe range on this sole unit is great to support adventure-led play at school on all types of terrain.

^{Bobux Alpha Evo School Shoe Black}

Froddo

Still our most popular school shoe range and ideal for the wider feet, the Froddo range has included more options on their Extra-Grip sole unit. Ideal for active play. Such as the Mary Jane Hearts.

^{Froddo Kids Barefoot School Mary Jane Hearts}

They have also updated a few of their classic styles such as a new version of the Froddo Barefoot Lace Up School Shoe.

 ^{Froddo Barefoot Lace Up School Shoe}

and we have an updated version of the lovely T-bar Nina shoe from last year.

^{Froddo Kids Nina Barefoot T-Bar School Shoe}

Vivobarefoot

Alongside the popular Ludo and Wyn school shoes, Vivobarefoot have introduced the T-Bar to the range. The new Gobi T-bar is a timeless barefoot school shoe crafted from soft, durable Wild Hide leather and suede, it's built to handle the demands of school life whilst offering comfort and flexibility throughout the day.

^{Vivobarefoot Kids Gobi T-Bar School Obsidian}

The shoes sits on Vivobarefoot's 4mm Urban Play outsole, faturing a hexagonal tread for improved grip across various surfaces. The sole is zero-drop, ultra think, puncture-resistant, and highly flexible - promoting ground feel, sensory feedback and all day barefoot comfort.

Recommendations for Specific Foot Types

Below we highlight the best options and recommendations for different widths of foot.

Narrower feet

For narrower feet have a look at the range from Bobux Kid + which includes smarter and sporty options.

                                              ^{Bobux Kid+ Bound School Shoe Black                                              Bobux Kid+ Rebound School Shoe}

Medium feet

For medium widths, our go-to brands are Plae, PaperKrane, Petasil and Young Soles. Between these brands we now have a great choice of styles for every taste.

                             Petasil Dash School Shoes                            Paperkranes Atlas Mary Jane Shoes                                              Plae Nat Black Shoes

Medium to wide feet

For medium to wide feet check out Vivobarefoot and the new Camper Peu.

Vivobarefoot Addis School Shoes                 Camper Peu Shoes in Black             Vivobarefoot Addis Wyn School Shoes                Vivobarefoot Ludo School Shoes

Wide feet

For wider feet Froddo Barefoot is our most popular brand of school shoes and suits a wider foot really nicely.

Froddo Mary Jane Shoes Flowers           Froddo Barefoot Lace Up School Shoes            Froddo Barefoot School Sports Shoes                Froddo Nina Barefoot Tbar Shoes

Extra-wide feet

For extra-wide school shoes this year we have a lot more options from  Bar3Foot, Be Lenka Scoot and Play. They are all fantastic extra wide options.

                      ^{Be Lenka Kids Play Boots Black                            Bar3Foot Elf Denver Vegan School Shoes Black                                 Be Lenka Kids Scoot Sneakers Black}

Accessories

Don't forget to pick up some of those school essential accessories whilst buying your shoes. A must have is a pack of our handy shoe labels. These allow your youngster should be able to keep track of their footwear on those busy school cloakrooms!

                               School Shoe Labels

We also stock the lovely wool tights and socks from MP Denmark in their premium superwash wool to ensure extra warmth this winter.

MP Denmark Selma Knee Socks Grey           MP Denmark Wool Rib Tights Black        MP Denmark Wool Rib Socks         MP Denmark Wool Selma Knee Socks Navy

We have a wide range of shoe polishes and waterproofing options to help take care of your school shoes and ensure maximum life out of them. You can shop the full range HERE.

         Famaco Patent Conditioner                Famaco Eco Protect Waterstop             Chain Bridge Honey Farm Beeswax Shoe Polish              Famaco Eco Cream

Blog Posts:

If you need more help finding the right barefoot school shoes we have several blogs about school shoes with lots of useful information to help you find that perfect pair!

1) Comparing the Width of our School Shoes

Whilst the above is a useful summary of the relative widths of our range we have done a separate blog post looking at the different widths of the school shoes and the issues to consider. Read the blog HERE.

2) PE Shoes and Plimsolls

We have done a separate blog post on what we recommend as a barefoot alternative to a Plimsoll for indoor and PE use. Read the blog HERE.

3) Shoe Care

With your child in their school shoes for so long every day good care is essential to maximise durability. Ensure shoes are dried thoroughly after use and regularly cleaned and polished. For more information have a look at our shoe care guide for detailing advise on each shoe type. Read the blog HERE.