About Squeaky Shoes

Not only is the shoe functional and fun for children, but parents love the safety feature of knowing where their child is at all times. What a peace of mind for trips to the mall!!

Little ones stay entertained while in the car seat or stroller. Squeaky shoes stimulate and motivate the pre-walker and beginning walker. The audible feedback with every step will help your little one concentrate on his or her feet and motivate them to keep walking.

Squeaky shoes are great encouragement for visually impaired children and will allow visually impaired parents to hear the first steps of their little ones.

In order for the shoe to squeak a child must walk heel to toe. This encourages crawlers to begin walking and toddlers and young children to walk properly and not up on their toes. We offer unique and stylish squeaky baby and toddler shoes and sandals while keeping in mind the important matter of comfort and overall care for young feet.

To temporarily disable the squeaker, use a piece of tape. To permanently disable the squeaker, drop child safe glue into the squeaker. All of our squeaky shoes come with two-way squeakers. In the event the squeaky shoes don't squeak two ways, we'll refund or exchange for you free of charge!

www.Chinadirectstore.com  was listed in the following article as reasonably priced squeaky shoes online

The Courier-Journal. (Louisville, Ky)

Louisville Scene Section

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Written by
Joseph Gerth, a reporter for The Courier-Journal. (Louisville, Ky)

Squeaky shoes! 
Fun footwear delights kids – and doting parents 

THE WRITER
Joseph Gerth is a reporter for The Courier-Journal

It happens every time we go out. People see us coming and a huge grin slides across their faces.

"Is that her shoes?" they ask, raising their voices over the "eeek-eeek, eeek-eeek, eeek-eeek" that fills the air.

They are talking about our daughter and the shoes that have become ubiquitous in the Chinese adoption community.

They are squeaky shoes, and they are all the rage.

I know you're saying, "Who in their right mind would want their toddler squeaking everywhere they went? The little munchkins are already loud enough, aren't they!"

True. Our Lucy bangs together whatever she can get her hands on, repeatedly makes her Fisher-Price doggy sing the same song -- "Head, shoulders, knees and toes" -- until it rattles through your brain as you sleep, and she howls with glee or sorrow in all her waking hours.

But the shoes are great.

They are a fairly simple contraption. Kind of like regular shoes built on top of a dog's squeak toy. (This seems to both delight and confound our beagle.)


The sole of the shoe has an air chamber. Each time Lucy steps, air is expelled through a small whistle, making the squeaking sound. Genius. 

There are several benefits. 

The shoes encourage Lucy to walk. She loves the noise and will walk anywhere with us while she wears them. And when she's not wearing her squeaky shoes, she'll sometimes take big giant steps trying to make her traditional shoes belch out a melody. 

When she's wearing them, it's impossible to lose her. You've seen panicked parents scurrying around the local discount store looking for their little one, who slipped away in that split second when they were looking for a price tag on the new garden-hose nozzle. 

Not us. 

First, we always know when she's on the move. Second, if she pops in behind the propane grills and propane accessories, you can always hear where she is. 

They never fail to make people smile and elicit comments from them, which, in turn, gives us the chance to brag about our daughter, who, of course, is the cutest little girl to ever walk the planet. 

The drawbacks are minor. You probably don't want your tyke to wear squeaky shoes in church or the library. And when I was in the hospital with kidney stones a couple of months ago, Mary Ann had to think twice while dressing Lucy for a visit. 

And folks at day care will probably find them charming for about eight minutes -- less if they have a room full of kiddos whose parents find the shoes as nifty as we do. 

The shoes come in various styles. We've seen Mary Janes, tennis shoes and sandals. They make them for both girls and boys, but the girls' shoes seem to be the most plentiful. 

They're well-known in the Chinese adoption community because shops in Guangzhou, China, where the American Consulate is located, sell them. Every American who adopts from China spends several days in the city and has ample opportunity to buy them. 

The desire for these shoes is so great that it would cause a seemingly rational person to whip out her wallet and hand a $20 bill to two perfect strangers in the hope they would bring her several pairs of the shoes back from China. 

True story: We were a couple of weeks from traveling to adopt our daughter when we ran into a woman who had recently returned with her new daughter. "You've got to buy me some squeaky shoes," the stranger begged us while searching through her purse for money. "Get three or four different sizes, any colors." 

The good news is, you don't have to travel around the world to get these shoes. 

Thanks to the magic of the Internet, you can buy the squeaky shoes from a number of places without leaving your computer. We've not ordered them, so we can't vouch for the companies that sell them online, but, hey, you can find them cheap enough that you can take a chance. 

We've seen them on the Internet for anywhere from $5.25 to $28.95 per pair. Buy the cheap ones; the expensive ones look exactly like the ones we paid $4 per pair for in China. 

And, oh, by the way, a little piece of duct tape over the squeaker will silence them and preserve your sanity.