These Boots are Made for Walking

Looking for things to do in Leamington Spa recently, we chanced across a wonderful specialist retailer - Lockwoods. A family business that claims their boot fitting service is regarded as the best available in the UK, with their “fit guarantee” giving complete peace of mind.

The amount of walking checking Treasure Trails clues, we do means we need decent boots. My current ones were on their last legs (ha ha). So, not wanting to pass up the opportunity for a proper fitting, I hot footed it over there!

The service was an absolute delight and a master class in how to make sure your customer feels important. The young salesman was extremely knowledgeable and had a great balance between giving me enough and too much information.

First he measured my feet - from side to side as well as toe to heel. He measured them in the old fashioned way - on a scale on a slope and then again with me standing up so they were weight bearing which he explained could be quite a different size. Turns out my left foot is a whole size bigger than my right! No wonder I have difficulty with shoes and are only really comfortable in flip flops!

He showed me how the foot moves when its walking using a foot that looked like something out of a horror film!  He checked what kind of walking I did - ambling round towns and cities mostly working out new Treasure Trail routes with a bit of country rambling for fun too! Then he produced a pair of boots to try on and he checked the fit with his fingers in the heel (rather than pushing down on the front to work out where my toes were).

I did try on a second pair but really the first pair were just right and felt incredibly comfortable.  I was offered insoles and after a discussion on the technical merits of these £40 extras, I was sold. I love their colour too.  

At no time did I feel under any kind of pressure to buy which was refreshing and I am only sorry that I don't live close to Leamington Spa because the shop was full of all sorts of other treats that I would have loved to have spent my money on.  They do have a mail order option though so I will go back again virtually and have a browse after the next pay day!

Boots or flip flops? What do you walk in when you are doing a Treasure Trail? And have you done the Leamington Spa Spy Mission?