It’s a constant battle of shoes being left all over the band hall after events, “someone stole my shoes”, kids forgetting their shoes, and kids not having actual marching shoes at all.
In your program, what’s the consequence for not having marching shoes for an event? How do you get parents to buy the correct shoes? How do I get them to stop taking someone else’s shoes when they forget to bring theirs? Do you have them store shoes at school or do they keep them home? How do I keep them from getting left behind after events?
Please tell me any and everything. I’m getting so frustrated by something that, in my eyes, shouldn’t even be an issue.
Re: Marching Shoes
Posted by Brkt87 on 3/28/2025, 10:46 am, in reply to "Marching Shoes"
To make sure they all have the correct shoe, I order them from the vendor and pay for them out of activity, then have the kids pay back the activity account (eliminates sales tax and saves parents' $$). I put the students' names on the heel of each of their shoe soles with an electric engraver. When I started engraving the names, the shoe "thief" quickly went out of business! And, the shoes never go home--they stay in each kid's instrument cubby or in their uniform bag.
Re: Marching Shoes
Posted by Inner-City BD II on 3/28/2025, 9:52 am, in reply to "Marching Shoes"
This is an organizational problem, and one you can fix if you make a few simple changes.
You need each student to get a mesh or drawstring bag like the extremely cheap backpacks handed out all over or this one..
Write each student's name on the bag, attach the bag to the hanger with their uniform.
They should be traveling to and from the game in uniform. Full uniform when departing, full uniform when arriving. That fixes the "leaves things behind" problem.
These are problems you can solve if you institute standards and cultural expectations.
