Shorter answer than you'd expect: later than most people buy them.
Before walking outdoors, shoes do nothing useful
A baby who is crawling, cruising along the furniture or taking first steps indoors doesn't need shoes. What they need is to feel the floor. Bare feet are best; grip socks or soft sock shoes are the next best thing on cold or slippery floors.
Shoes at this stage don't help a child learn to walk. Walking is learned through feedback from the sole of the foot, and anything between the foot and the floor reduces that feedback.
The first real pair is for outdoors
Buy the first proper pair when your child is walking outdoors — on pavement, gravel, playground bark. At that point the shoe has an actual job: protecting against cold, wet and sharp things.
For most children that's somewhere around EU 19–23, but go by what they're doing, not by age or size.
What a first shoe needs
- A sole thin and flexible enough to feel through. Roll it up. If it won't bend, put it back.
- A wide, rounded toe box, so the toes can splay for balance.
- Zero drop — no raised heel.
- Light. A heavy shoe changes how a new walker moves.
- Easy on and off. At this stage children pull their shoes off several times a day, and a shoe that's a fight is a shoe you'll both resent.
What it doesn't need
Ankle support, arch support, a moulded footbed or a stiff heel counter. These are often sold as features for new walkers. A healthy child developing normally doesn't need any of them, and a stiff shoe does the work the foot should be doing.
Getting the size right
Measure the foot standing, in the evening, and add 10–12 mm of growing room. Then check every eight weeks — at this age feet change fast, and a first pair rarely lasts a whole season.
Our size guide walks through the measuring method step by step.
When you're ready, First Steps is the range built for exactly this stage.