These are great shoes for first walkers! I bought 3 pairs of these in different sizes. They are so cute to wear with jeans and are made of very flexible material (almost like the baby is walking bare foot). My 12 month old would prefer these shoes over his nike shoes and other brands. When I asked him where his shoes were he would always go get these, even when the other shoes were sitting right next the them. I definitely reccommend these shoes. We still use stride rite, but we are now on the next step of walking shoes.