Last year a survey of parents showed that only just over 10% of children had learned to tie their laces, even though they were quite used to using 21st century gadgets like a mobile phone.

Making sure your that child is able to fasten their own laces, using hands and coordination, are important for children’s healthy development. As part of the learning process, encouraging your child to wear shoes with laces, rather than Velcro fasteners, can help to enable this skill to be learnt sooner rather than later.

The Lelli Kelly California boot helps to address this issue. “Everyone knows that it’s convenient and practical to use shoes with Velcro,” they explain at Lelli Kelly, “Nevertheless it’s obvious that it slows down or even prevents learning an important operation that has to be learnt during a specific stage in the child’s life: tying shoelaces.

The Lelli Kelly "Easy Fit" System, produced for the California style, enables an easy and quick fit, due to the elasticated sides that let your child just slip on their Lelli Kelly boots.  You still get the stylish look of laces, and the adjustment and comfort benefits that laces bring but each pair can be speedily put on. Since your child will still find it simple to get their Lelli Kelly Californa boots on and off they will then be able to practice tying the laces in a pressure free environment.

“Practice is important,” says Marielle Attilieni, vice-chairman of Lelli Kelly, “and you can only get that by using shoes with laces instead of Velcro.”

Lelli Kelly also provide inspiration for tying and lacing up your California boots in several different styles so that your child can instill their own unique personal style onto their Lelli Kelly boots.  Each pair of Lelli Kelly California boots come with a display card showing different fun ways to tie laces as well as your own unique shoe horn and leg warmers.