Monday, August 22, 2011

back to school shopping

back to school shop up
{crewcuts}

back to school shop up
{threadless}

We've done a bit of back to school shopping so far (shoes, t-shirts), and I thought it would be fun to post a little "review" of Crewcuts vs. Threadless, as we are trying both for the first time.

I used to love Hannas, but the boys have become a little burnt out on all the stripes and have wanted to branch out. After my Hannah phase, I mostly dressed them in thrifted shirts for a year or two. That worked out really well too, but this year I wanted them to be able to pick out what they want for back to school.

Basically, my "review" is that we like both the Crewcuts and the Threadless shirts. The Crewcuts shirts are incredibly soft and I love the trim fit of them. The sleeves are shorter and they are slimmer through the body than a standard boy's shirt. The Threadless shirts are also of nice quality (though not as nice as Crewcuts), and my boys really loved the fun designs. Each shirt has a clever title. The shirt Dieter is wearing in the photo is call "Loch Ness Imposter." Can you see it? Threadless is quite a bit more affordable than the Crewcuts too.

I love dressing boys! Boys are easy and fun to dress and it's nice sometimes having fewer choices than for the girls (although that was fun too, when Faith was little).

We are going to miss summer flip flops, though, as we trade them in for velcro tennis shoes. :(

If you have boys' clothing lines you love, please leave a link in the comments! For that matter, what shoes do your boys wear? Are they easy to slip on and off?


16 comments:

Madame Melville said...

So cute! I'm in Canada so we just don't have the same selection for clothing. I have found it is getting harder and harder to get good thrifted items as the boys get older. 5 and 6 year old boys REALLY wear out their clothing.

I always get good snow suits at LL Bean as we have cold winters.

I've had good luck with Saucony running shoes for the boys (with the velcro) I wear the same brand so they like being just like mommy.

Anonymous said...

how about boden? we love the tshirts from there. they are still having their summer sale. plus they have free shipping/returns.
we also use puma sneakers. they are cute and last.

Corey said...

I am glad that I can still find thrifted shirts for my son. He's 10 so thrifted pants are a little bit harder to find. The only new shirts I buy for him are soccer jerseys, which he wears at least 3 times a week. Although they're expensive I figure the cost per wear is pennies.

For shoes I buy a pair of Keen sandals and they fit through the summer and into the fall. They have velcro and laces with toggle.

Good luck with the new school year.

oceangal said...

Once my boys grew out of the chunky double extra wide foot phase I have been pretty luck with resale shops. For brand new shoes I like Merrells. They are slip on.

Anonymous said...

i love crewcuts, but am mostly a sale rack shopper. have you been to the olive juice website? they have a lot of girl things but a few cutie pie boy things as well. ive never ordered from threadless, but have always wanted to.

and i second the Boden suggestion. rspecially if you can get it on sale.

sadly my son is in mens sizes now. its not nearly as fun. or cheap.

Andrea said...

Cute shirts and kid! My kids pretty much just wear hand-me downs. I have several friends who give me a bag once or twice a year; those go into big bins in the basement and I haul them out in spring and fall and do our season's "shopping." This generally ends up filling our drawers way beyond capacity, while they only wear a selection of what's there (they all have very specific tastes) and finally this year, I had my oldest go through and pick out what he will/will not wear so that he wasn't standing by a drawer full of clothes saying "I don't have any clean shirts!!" When they're pre-worn, I don't worry about if they get stained/dirty/ripped, which most of them do. For shoes, I've been trying to find environmentally friendly ones--we've tried Simple, Keen and Ethletic. All basic sneakers. All with laces that require tying (the younger two figured out tying earlier than the older one), so not easy to slip on and off. And they all wear out fairly quickly, but I think all sneakers would, with the hard wear kids give them. I always buy sneakers in the spring, too, since they just wear snow boots all winter.

Mary Kate said...

We love Boden, Land's End, and LL Bean for the boys. I have been a fan of J.Crew for 15 years and probably do need to branch out into Crewcuts.

Elodie said...

Here in England my boys live in Mini Boden(which I adore),Sea Salt, bit of Fat Face mixed with basics from H&M,M&S,Lands End and John Lewis,all mail order now. You could well get some summer bargains as the summer sales have started here and postage to the US is quite good I hear.Sadly the rain is already falling so I'll have no need for any more summer clothes this year.

I loved the Boden blue star board shorts/orange T shirt this year,in fact I think they were my favourite outfit all year for my twin boys.They looked so uplifting on Cornish beaches this summer.I love Nordic Kids but it's pricey,ditto Joules.

Kelly said...

Thanks for the tip on Threadless! I think I might actually be able to find things for both of my boys there (17 and 10, well, almost 11 ;)it seems girls clothes are generally so much easier to come by than boys!

T said...

Cute shirts! For my 5 year old boy I get alot of stuff from The Childrens Place. Its cute, durable and pretty cheap... if you watch the sales. My older son is 10 and all he wants is sports stuff. He prefers under armor or nike...I try to thrift these as much as I can because they are so pricey!

Kristin said...

I have never heard of those brands, I will have to check them out!

Jen said...

I'll put my 2 cents in for MiniBoden. Between Boden and H&M, we are usually covered. Every once in a while I find organic cotton tees at H&M, which is always nice.

Heather said...

I love Boden for boys. The clothes are a really nice quality, and they last very well. They do run a little small though, so I'd order up a size. For shoes we've had really good luck with Vans (slip-ons) and Keens. The Keens were a splurge, but they hold up so well they'd work as hand-me-downs also. Keens makes a shoe/sneaker as well as the more popular sandal-type shoe, and they both have the same elastic and toggle kind of closure, so no tying shoes. In CA you could probably get away with either.
Have fun!

catie said...

just bought some new KEENs for my 6 year old son.
see them here
he has always worn crocs & keens.
both are nice & wide, plus easy on & off.

Northern Hi-Lights said...

Hi Mary Beth, Linked back to your blog via your comment - and a very nice place to be it is! My 2 boys have to wear a uniform to school (this is the norm for most British schools) - navy blue and grey - blah!! On the plus side it is a no brainer in the morning when time is tight getting out the door. We've been back at school for 3 weeks now, it's like the holidays never happened now! Wishing you all the best for your week back ♥ Elaine x

Anonymous said...

I have two boys and two girls.My eldest,Griffin<lives in miniboden tartan flannel apnts in the winter.I wait until their buy 3 get the 4th for a dollar and then get him all four colors.those and a pair of khakis and 1 pair of jeans sees in through to spring.Shirts wise,a couple of boden a couple of solid color from target,a hoodie or two and we are set.Underwear/pj's are still hannas,we get velcro sneaks from superga,adidas or another brand that starts with tsu,they are upstairs and i am being lazy:0)