If I were to ask for a show of hands of how many parents were NOT ready for back to school this year, would your hand be raised? Now, I’ll obviously never SEE if your hand is up or down as this is the internet, but after chatting with some friends and seeing people’s posts online, it felt like many were in the same position as we were this year – NOT ready for back to school. Maybe it was the nice weather leading right into the first week of September or maybe it was people busy with last minute trips, but whatever the reason, I knew I wasn’t alone in our mad dash to the school supply aisle hours before the new scholastic year started.
I’m not usually so behind with my planning for back to school, but this summer was a hectic one for us. From travelling to quite a few places to deciding to sell our home and buy another one, it felt like we were constantly on the move. With the close date of our home being just a few days before the new school year started, we had so many other things on our minds other than buying back packs and shoes.
I think the panic of back to school shopping hit me the day after we moved into our new home. I just knew we HAD to go shopping or else the kids would be wearing flip flops to school. So we headed into our local Sport Chek to see what we could find and hoped for the best! With all three kids in school this year, we needed SIX pairs of shoes – two pairs for each, one indoor and one outdoor. That’s A LOT of shoes and A LOT of options for children.
I honestly don’t usually take all three kids shopping with me because CHAOS, but due to the fact that I wanted to make sure that they were properly fitted for the right size of shoes that would last the year long, I had to bring them all in. Thankfully for me, one of the dear workers in the shoe department spotted my distress a mile away and came right up to me and asked how she could help. I’m sure she regretted that decision two minutes later when she saw how crazy the kids can get in a store! HA!
But seriously, all jokes aside, the workers at Sport Chek were amazing at helping me find all the shoes I needed. They properly fit the kids so we would know their shoe size and then showed us all the options within those sizes. The one worker even took time to show my daughter how to properly tie her shoe laces! That’s clearly a better job than I’ve done seeing as my eight year still can’t tie her shoes!
One of the things I absolutely loved about shopping at Sport Chek was what they did if they were OUT of a certain size, in a certain shoe. You see, as soon as both boys discovered the LIGHT UP Skechers, all bets were off and they HAD to have those in their favourite colors. My middle son lucked out with his size in stock, but my youngest wasn’t so fortunate. I sank a little in despair at the thought of trucking the kids to ANOTHER store to see if they had the right size, but they quickly let us know that we could order right then and there his size online and it would be shipped directly to our home, get this… AT NO EXTRA CHARGE! WHAT?! I’ve never heard of this before! Sitting still in the shoe section, I simply typed in my email address and the shoes were ordered before I even left the store! All I had to do was give that email address at the checkout to have those shoes added to my in-store order and pay for the whole thing together. I was SO impressed with this service. I even asked what happened if they arrived and they didn’t fit and they assured me that we could take them back to any Sport Chek for an exchange or refund. I mean come on, it’s just TOO EASY! The cherry on top to that story was that I was pretty sure my son wasn’t going to receive those shoes on time as it was a holiday weekend. However, to mine (and his) GREAT surprise, they showed on SUNDAY! I mean who delivers on a Sunday of a holiday weekend?! He was so excited that he wouldn’t take the shoes off and kept running around the house, trying to find the darkest places to test his new light up sneakers. His life was made!
When it came to my daughters shoes, she’s at a transitional age – not quite a preteen yet but definitely not a little kid anymore and is becoming increasingly aware of her fashion choices. She just HAD to have these DC high tops because they were in her favourite colours – purple and black! Even the Adidas she ended up getting were SO NICE, I kept asking if they came in MY size because I definitely wanted a pair (sadly, they do not!)
Then it was time to shop for backpacks. To be honest, when the kids were younger, I used to get them the cheap character backpacks that they would always ask for but they would fall apart in no time flat. I can remember having to replace my daughters backpack THREE TIMES her first year of school! That’s insane! So since then, I’ve decided that if I invest just a little bit more upfront, the bags are good to last for the entire year – if not longer. Bonus was that Sport Chek was having a buy one, get one 50% off sale the weekend before school (which is STILL HAPPENING!), which is music to any momma’s ears! The boys both ended up with Dakine backpacks that have a laptop pouch inside…which is perfect for all the notes and paperwork that they bring home. My daughter got a Parkland one with white flowers on it that I will definitely borrow cause it’s just that cool!
This momma was so happy to be in and out in under an hour with all the shoes I needed, one pair in the mail and all backpacks in hand thanks to the help and efficiency of Sport Chek! If you are still holding off on your kids back to school gear, make sure to head to your local Sport Chek to see what they have in stock. Especially when it comes to footwear, having a trained professional size and service your kids shoe needs is a game changer! No more guessing at home and no more stress at the store! I call that a win-win!
Happy Shopping!
Love & Blessings,
Christine
Note: This post was sponsored by Sport Chek. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.
