Oh, thank you, thank you! I knew you would come through and boy did you! I’m on my phone so can’t flip back and forth to remember who said what, so I apologize for that. Thank you all for the mention of brand names and other tips. Teddy bears for his feet sound perfect for this kid. I’ve seen Calzedonia at various stores, so will check out what they have for him (ie, if Italians make them in his size).
La Ped, thanks for those lists! I may put my mom on the case, to go with the hi-top Chucks she is sending for Christmas, and I’ll look here for the other brands you mentioned.
Eva, it never would’ve occurred to me that this was a Reformhaus thing. I saw the Airport socks for men at Falke, assume they’re the 60% wool socks you mentioned. Are they warm? The website gives highlights for lots of the socks. Several women’s lines have “warm” listed as a highlight, but none of the men’s do. That’s where I got the idea that the men’s aren’t warm. That and that they are so thin. So many of your tips will be helpful—thank you!
Here’s what I was doing while you were all giving me this advice: I went to a shoe store (Deichmanns—their shoes are ok, but not great) to get him fleece shoe liners. They didn’t have size 48, so I got 46. There is a little gap length-wise, but not in the width. I hope they’ll help. His feet are so big it is difficult to find the right size any more. That store had socks that are supposedly warm, but not in his size and he didn’t like the way they looked.
I wandered through the Weihnachtsmarkt on Breitscheidplatz, didn’t know I should’ve been looking for socks, darn it, but we will go to more Weihnachtsmärkte, so I’ll look then. We live close to Winterfeldtplatz, so I’ll look at that market too—there are lots of textiles there.
I also stopped by Uniqlo. Heat tech socks come in tons of colors. He said he didn’t like any of them but I got a pair anyway. They are size 42-46, but he tried them on at home and it seems they’ll be ok. He’ll wear test-wear them to school tomorrow.
Running other errands, I passed by a clothing shop for the types of workers mentioned above.
His shoes, unfortunately, are not insulated. They are suede Puma, and we just spent 100 bucks on them a month ago. The leather Chucks he’s getting for Christmas are also not insulated. My mom says the clerk at the Converse outlet told her they didn’t make them for men with the plush lining. I hope warm soles (I’ll pick up some of the heat-reflective ones next time I’m at the drug store, so we can compare) and good socks will be enough for him!
If I knew he’d be able wear them in the spring, we could set these aside and get warmer shoes now, but who knows. He is very particular about how things look and feel and hates shopping. I hope socks and the warm shoe liners will suffice. He has plenty of room for them in his shoes—tied his canvas Chucks so tight the plackets on either side of the shoe touched, and still didn’t need to untie to take them on/off. (His feet are so clearly not from me I have to laugh—got myself a shoehorn today, so I can get my Seychelles Chelsea boots on, because I have ridiculously high arches).
