Holiday Gift Guide – Review and Giveaway: Polliwalks

Gift Guide Category: Gifts For Kids

What do you get when you mix kids’ shoes and animal shapes? You end up with Polliwalks – the cutest shoes to ever walk down your street, and that leave fun footprints as well. 

What they are:

Polliwalks™ are shoes that combine footwear with fun – making wearing kids’ shoes a playful experience that still provides support, stability and comfort for little feet as well. From the Polliwalks’ website:

Once upon a time, children’s shoes were taking themselves a bit too seriously, and feet were not having any fun. Then one day, a new brand named Polliwalks™ was created. Polliwalks™ brought fun back to children’s feet. All the children loved their Polliwalks™. They took them home, quickly became best friends, and lived happily every after. When was the last time a shoe looked you in the eye and made you smile? Feet have never had so much fun! Go on, go outside and play!

The shoes come in a variety of styles – everything from ducks, frogs, ladybugs, gators, puppies and kitties. The top of the shoe is molded in the animal shape – and the bottom of the shoe is molded to leave behind that animal’s footprints when your child walks in mud, snow, or sand:

Polliwalks™ shoes are molded from a waterproof soft foam and are easy for young kids to slip on and off.  They are easy to clean, just by hosing or rinsing off, washed with a damp sponge or machine washing (see website for specific requirements). The shoes are environmentally friendly as well – all excess material created from the molding process is recycled, all tags and hooks are made from recycled paper and plastic with minimal packaging used, environmentally friendly water based adhesives are used in the manufacturing of the shoes, and no animal products are used in the manufacturing process.

Just in time for early holiday release, Polliwalks are coming out with two new Spring styles, available for the holidays only at 100+ Dillards stores across the country (and online at Zappos.com)!  The two new style are FISH LIPS (a fish sandal whose squishy lips change color when exposed to UV rays of the sun) and FIREFLY (a clog in the form of a firefly that has a light in the back that lights up when in motion, like a firefly!).

Courtesy of the Family Review Network, we received two pairs of Polliwalks™ shoes to try out – one of the current styles, and one of the new Spring styles, available for early holiday release only at Dillards and Zappos.com.

Here’s my our take on them:

The first pair of shoes that we got are the lilac puppy style shown above, in a size 8 to fit my toddler. Like her older sister, she loves puppies, so I knew that the shoes would be a hit – and I was right. Whether worn as dressy shoes with a skirt or dress, or just casually with jeans or other pants, the ‘puppy’ shoes look adorable on her. And she absolutely loves wearing them:

She can get them on and off herself – which is definitely a feature that we both like, since right now everything is ‘I do myself’ with her. And with the winter weather now here in earnest, I am happy for the faux fur lining that keeps her little feet warm. She’s been wearing the shoes everywhere – and I’ve been getting compliments on them pretty much wherever we go. Like at the Children’s Museum the other day, when my little one became a ‘puppy’ herself, complete with doggie house, bowl and even a plush ‘bone’…  The Polliwalks doggie shoes seemed right at home. 

The second style that we received are one of the two new styles, available exclusively at Dillards (and online at Zappos.com) for the holidays, and to be released everywhere for Spring 2009 – in the Firefly design:

I think these are adorable – and all three of my girls are intrigued by how the little firefly tails in the back light up with every step. Not only do they light up very brightly, but they flash for much longer than other light-up shoes that we’ve had before in the past. Light-up shoes are always much more than a novelty to me – but also a good way to keep track of where your little one is at, especially at dusk or in the dark. So far my little one won’t let me put any shoes except for the puppy ones on her feet, but I can’t wait to see her running around in these come spring. 

The bottom line:

Kids can be picky about a lot of things, including what they wear on their feet. Polliwalks™ are a great way to get them excited about wearing shoes (and keeping them on!), while providing the stability and comfort that they need. And the fun animal shapes and footprints are just plain cute. What a great gift idea for your child to open up on Christmas morning. 

Where can you find them?:

Polliwalks™ are available at any number of retailers, both online and in stores. The two new Spring styles are currently only available at 100+ Dillards stores across the country (and online at Zappos.com), but will be widely available in Spring of 2009. Polliwalks sell for around $25 to $35.

Would you like to try them?:

Courtesy of Polliwalks and the Family Review Network, I have the opportunity to give a pair of Polliwalks to a lucky reader! The winner will be able to choose from the original duck, frog, ladybug, gator, puppy and kitty styles in your choice of color and size. If you are interested in giving a pair of these fun shoes to a special child on your list this holiday season, here are the rules:

1. Enter by checking out the Polliwalks site and and leaving a comment here to let me know which style, color and size you think you’d pick if you win. Please don’t just say ‘choose me’, or your entry will be discarded.
2. The contest will run until Friday, December 12th at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be selected through random drawing, contacted by e-mail, listed on this post and also submitted to PRIZEY.Fetch. This giveaway is open to the US and Canada.
3. Please leave a valid e-mail address or other way to contact you! If you don’t wish to leave your e-mail address, please make sure that you leave a unique name and check back with PRIZEYWinners to see if you won. If the winner hasn’t responded within 3 days, an alternate winner will be chosen by random drawing.
4. If you’d like extra entries, you can:

• Subscribe to my RSS feed (click on the orange icon in the upper right sidebar) or subscribe via e-mail – leave me a separate comment to let me know.
• Mention this contest on your blog with a link back to this post, and leave a separate comment with the link to your post so I can find it.
• Put the button for my Holiday Gift Guide on your blog’s sidebar – the code for it is in the sidebar.
• Either Twitter about, ‘Stumble’, ‘Digg’ or ‘Kirtsy’ this post – leave me a separate comment with your username at whichever site you chose (one extra entry).

So that’s a total of 5 comments/entries if you do all of the extra entry options.

Good luck! 

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED – the random number generator has chosen comment #62 as the winner:

Congratulations to Krissy whose extra subscription entry has won for her! I will be e-mailing you shortly to work out the details.

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