Is that an alien on your shoe?

This seems to be the week of things we love from New Zealand, but Bobux original soft soled shoes are simply gorgeous.

The Bobux soft soled shoe is made of a slightly thicker leather than some of the other soft soles we have reviewed in the past, they are still super soft with an elastic ankle band but the first thing you will notice right out is the fact that the band around the ankle is flat instead of puffier like in other soft soles you might have seen. This terribly confused me at first as I couldn't figure out how the elastic was going around the band if there was no ruffling of the band, which left me to do a bit of investigating to see how that was even possible.

Well after carefully inspecting the shoe I discovered that the reason for that is the Bobux is made of one piece of thicker leather instead of two pieces of thinner leather (like many soft sole shoes are made.. one for the outside and one totally separate piece for the suede lining). The band going around the ankle on the Bobux is the only place you will find two pieces of leather as the cuff that holds the elastic is sewn onto the shoe.

What does that mean for the shoe itself? Well nothing in terms of how the shoe functions its still very soft, and it still stays on remarkably well.. but I would guess that the one piece design with the thicker leather would actually give the shoe a longer "life" as the added thickness would protect against tears which is especially useful if your child wears their soft soles in places he/she shouldn't (like outside) or you plan on passing the shoes down to a sibling or friend. I know I inherited two pairs of soft soles when Connor was a newborn and both of which will be retired after he outgrows them as one has a hole in the sole and the other is working on loosing one of its seams down the side. Though ascetically from the top they both still look great.

But with all that said.. my favorite part about the Bobux is the unique designs I have yet to see anywhere else. Connor scored himself a pair of the Aliens and I keep eying the Fuzzy Sheep design too, how cute is that?

Bobux has a HUGE selection of shoes currently on clearance as well including a pair of ADORABLE fuzzy poodles (for girls) and some police cars which I HAVE to order the moment we get back from Chicago so he can wear them to his dad's graduation when he graduates from the police academy in November. Oo I better get on that before you guys beat me too it!!

OH! I should mention.. Bobux's shoes are made of environmentally friendly Ecoleather.. which basically means that the tanning process of the leather is eco friendly without all the awful horrible dyes and chemicals they use in cheaper leathers. One of the simplest ways to tell the difference between a quality leather and a cheap leather tanned in yucky things (I don't even want to get into what some leather in tanned in.. it will seriously gross you out.) is to smell the leather. A good leather will smell wonderful, sweet even... a bad leather will have a chemical smell to it.. its hard to describe. I rode hunter jumpers all growing up and always was on the look out for a good saddle for the younger riders under me and sometimes used saddles have no markings so the way you tell if a older used saddle is made of a good leather (that basically will hold up to the amount of strain a competition rider will put on it) basically to tell you lift up the panels on the saddle and take a good wiff... a good saddle will still have that great smell. LOL I keep having this vision of all of you guys out there running around your house smelling all your leather products now. Needless to say the Bobux shoes do indeed have that sweet leather smell.

Go check out Bobux's full selection on their website! The soft soles are available from 0 to a 4x in some designs which will fit a 4-5 yr old! Wow.