As someone mentioned earlier,
As someone mentioned earlier, the soft leather baby shoes at Target are about $15 (http://www.target.com/s?searchTerm=baby+shoes&category=0|All|matchallany|all+categories). They are similar to the Robeez but cheaper. I think with a good pair of socks they're perfect for dry weather. You can try painting the soles with Plastidip to make them last longer on wet ground.
SoftstarShoes are amazing, we never bought them but my friend gets them for her son every year. You can order them with a weatherproof sole. The boots are very warm. I think their sale is in January.
Other brands I like for kids are :
- Pedoodles (http://www.pedoodles.com/) $40 very well made. I bought my daughter's last pair on Ebay.
- Vivobarefoot (look for seller TerraPlana254 on Ebay, about $25 for last year's models)
- Jingas (http://www.jingashop.com/) They have sales in January. The shoes are soft and confortables but not super durable for crawling kids. My daughter destroyed the top front of hers. One other down side is the fact that the laces are too short for my kids to practice lacing them themselves, but I could have bought an extra pair of longer laces.
- Watershoes are extremely flexible, some models using neoprene are nice for cool weather. There are so many different models that you can find a style you like.
- For indoors, you can use puffy paint to draw an anti-slippery pattern on the sole of the kids socks.
- If you're crafty you can very easily make shoes similar to the Robeez/Softstar. Use recycled leather bag, jacket or pants (I got great cheap leather items at our thrift store). Leather sole + felted wool upper is also a great combo. Some placemats make a usable soling material but I prefer leather+plastidip. There are patterns and tutorial all over the web and you can stitch them by hand if you don't have a machine. Your first pair may not look very professional ;-)
I know it seems hard but as for healthy food alternative if you have the time to research well enough you can find affordable options and sources. I could afford VFF but I'd rather run in $10 watershoes when I cannot be barefoot, they work better for me.