Shoe Review: Schuh ‘Betsey’ polka-dot t-bar shoes

Remember last week’s post about the Schuh sale, in which I mentioned I’d be hitting up eBay in search of the polka dot “Betsey” t-bars, which sold out before I even realised they had gone on sale? Well, as soon as I hit “publish” on the post, I did exactly that, and what should I find? Only the very shoes I was looking for, in my size, on Schuh’s eBay site!

Well, I  had to wait a few days for the auction to end (Don’t you just HATE that? When I want something, I want it NOW, dammit!) but I finally got them for £20 delivered, which was less than the sale price, and made me a very happy Shoeperwoman indeed, especially considering that I’ve wanted these shoes since they were released in January. (I kept telling myself I didn’t need another pair of polka dot shoes. Which was stupid, really, because you can NEVER have too many pairs of polka dot shoes. That’s my motto, anyway.)

This is my second purchase from Schuh’s eBay store, and I now make a point of checking there first before buying something from the main site, because both of my eBay purchases have been real bargains. On all of the auctions there it’s stated that the shoes are ex-display models, so they may have some surface marks or other imperfections (and they also may have been tried on by lots of different people, so if that bothers you, you may want to bear it in mind!). In this case, one of the shoes has a small black mark on the heel, which looks to me like it’s probably marker pen or something.

In all honesty, given what I paid, it wouldn’t really bother me too much, because I don’t think it was particularly noticeable (this idea is borne out by the fact that neither Terry, who took these photos, nor I, noticed it until after the photos were taken!), but I had a go at removing it by rubbing gently with soap, water, and, OK, just a little bit of nail polish remover. Most of the mark came off with that: you can still see a trace of it if you look very closely, but not many people tend to get down on the ground to examine my heels, I find, so I’m OK with that. With that said, if you are ordering from the eBay store, this is the kind of thing you may get, so it’s up to you to decide whether the lower price if worth it: for me it definitely was!

I bought these in my usual size: I had actually tried them on in-store a few months ago, so I knew they would fit, but I generally find Schuh true to size in any case. They have a durable canvas upper with a bright red heel and t-strap, and they’re very lightweight and comfortable, with the small platform making the heel feel lower than it really is.

These are now sold-out in store in all sizes, but if you want a pair, you can always do what I did and check out eBay: pretty much everything turns up there sooner or later…

(P.S. Our internet was down all day yesterday, and has only just come back up … I normally write most of my posts in advance, so I’m now really behind, and posts may be a bit thin on the ground today: sorry!)