Not wearing his shoes correctly

For a while now J has taken to wearing his shoes with the backs folded in and pushed down with his heels as he walks.

This has damaged the shoes a fair bit and although, under duress, he will put them back on properly, he invariably pushes them back down again when he thinks you are not looking.
He has done this at school for the same amount of time and they, like me, encourage him to put them on properly.

When out shoe shopping for myself I came across these Croc shoes.

I had never thought about them before and because I am a child of the 80s who wore plastic 'jelly shoes' as a fashion statement, I have avoided these for fear of looking silly.

J took to them straightaway and was wearing them around the house that evening.
Come morning time, and getting ready for school, he put his school shoes on, backs folded down.
I told him to change into his Crocs instead, and he did.
School were informed of his shoe change and the report back from them was positive. He was a lot calmer with them on and there was less fussing about.

As summer is on the doorstep peeking in, he will be able to wear these with no problems, but come autumn/winter and the rain (which in this country can be any time!) it may get trickier, but who knows, he may have grown out of his need to wear sandal type shoes and accept a new pair of  enclosed shoes by that time.