I found my perfect pair with Hotter Shoes – Review

One thing I have always struggled with is buying shoes. I have very petite narrow shoes and over the years have had great difficulty finding ones that fit. Add to that the fact we don’t have a lot of shoe shops locally which usually entails a trip to Carmarthen or further a field and it makes buying myself shoes a chore I hate! That is until now…

Back in May I was invited along to Hotter Shoes in Carmarthen with some other lovely bloggers to see their range of shoes. It was also the first time we had a bloggers event in West Wales so it was great to be invited along. I made the forty minute journey with Sally from Recipe Junkie which was nice and gave us to chance to chat.

I’ve previously walked passed the Hotter Shoes store in Carmarthen on countless occasions but never ventured in so I was interested to see what was on offer. I also hoped I might find some shoes that fit me! When Sally and I arrived we were introduced to the staff and pr team and told to help ourselves from a lovely spread of nibbles and a drink, while we waited for the last few bloggers to arrive. We also spotted the Hotter Bus while we waited.

Once we were all present we made ourselves comfortable to learn more about Hotter Shoes, it was really interesting. I didn’t realise that Hotter are the UK’s biggest shoe manufacturer and they make a pair of shoes every 20 seconds, that’s a lot of shoes! Hotter Shoes have over 71 stores in the UK with Carmarthen being one of five stores here in Wales. We were then given the opportunity to browse the current range which was the Spring/Summer range when we visited and try on those that we liked the look of. The staff were on hand to help us and they certainly know their shoes! I explained the problem I had to one of the girls and she pointed out some styles that would hopefully fit.

One reason I hadn’t been into the store before was because I thought the shoes were aimed at the older generation, something that very quickly proved to be completely wrong as I looked at the range. I certainly felt like a child in a sweet shop and really hoped that at least one pair would fit. After a good half an hour looking I selected a few pairs to try on. Here are the ones I liked the look off, from sandals to walking boots.

It felt quite a luxurious thing to be doing, trying on all these shoes just for me! Something that certainly hasn’t happened in many years and it’s usually a selection of children’s shoes in front of me these days! As the sizes in front of me were too big for my tiny fit I was quickly brought the right size for me to try on. We had all very kindly been told we could choose a pair of shoes each that we could keep and review. I was so excited, which one would I choose…

After a lot of deliberation I managed to whittle the pairs down to two pairs, the Minorca in Colbalt and the lovely Essmy Shoes in Red. It was so hard deciding which pair I was going to choose, I could see that I would wear both pairs in different situations. Eventually I opted for the lovely Minorca Sandals, as Summer was approaching and I know I would probably get a lot of use from them.

Then I did something I wouldn’t normal do, I treated myself to the Essmy shoes as well in red! after all I would also get a lot of wear out of them. After five minutes wearing my new Minorca Sandals I honestly did not want to take them off! they felt so comfortable already and almost as if I wasn’t wearing shoes at all. I certainly was looking forward to wearing them. While everyone else finished making their choices I browsed the lovely bags that Hotter also make and had a go filming a short clip for Hotter about the shoes I had chosen.

At the end of the evening we thanked everyone and made our way home with our lovely shoes in hand. Sally and I were both very pleased with our choices. I didn’t think I would be able to wear my Minorca sandals for a while yet due to the weather however a fortnight later the weather started to warm up unexpectedly. So I was able to wear them sooner than I thought. I wore them on our first trip of the year to the beach after school on day.

Since then I have worn my Minorca sandals almost daily, they are so comfortable and easy to wear. I will be really sad to have to put them away when the weather gets colder but rest assured they will be out next year as soon as the weather warms up again. Maybe we’ll experience an Indian Summer which will enable me to wear them a bit longer.