My daughter was taking a few shaky steps in her Sketcher skidders when I decided it was time to spring for her first big girl walking shoes. Seeing as she's my youngest of 4 kids under 4, I wanted to make sure that I would buy something that would be cute, durable & supportive as she was learning to walk. She immediately started walking all over since she put these on. She no longer is a crawler, but is now a little walker. These definitely live up to the Stride Rite name. I'm very happy with this purchase.