Herbie is a slipper now

There is a voice in your house that gets more compliance than yours. It says “can you say ball,” and a child who has ignored you for forty minutes says ball. Stride Rite noticed in April, when it put Ms. Rachel on a sneaker. The fall drop landed in August, and the headline is that Herbie is a slipper now.

What’s new

Five styles, all little-kid sizes. The Can You Say sneaker is a hi-top in pink or denim with a hook-and-loop strap laid over the laces, so it looks laced and closes in one motion, plus rainbow eyelets, three bead charms, a furry heart on the side and Ms. Rachel waving from the heel. It’s $35, sizes 3 to 10, and it was on sale the day we wrote this, which Stride Rite does twice a year. The Ms. Rachel and Herbie slipper is the one everyone will ask about: a yellow slipper with a plush Ms. Rachel on the toe and a blue one with a fuzzy orange Herbie, faux-fur lined, $30. Two weeks later came the Hi Top slippers, a plush sneaker with a ribbed sock cuff, in pink with a heart patch or blue with a star, also $30. Slippers run XS through XL, which covers about a size 3 to a size 12.

Why it works on a shoe

The spring collection launched April 21 at Walmart, DSW, Kohl’s and Stride Rite’s own site, and it was built around the same idea Ms. Rachel builds videos around: small wins a kid can do alone. The insoles are marked left and right with color and shape cues, the closures are hook and loop, and the copy on the box says “I can do it.” The fall drop keeps all of that and adds the two things a three-year-old actually wants, which are a furry heart and Herbie.

The prices, once

Can You Say sneaker, $35, sizes 3 to 10. Ms. Rachel and Herbie slipper, $30, XS to XL. Hi Top slipper in pink or blue, $30, XS to XL. All at striderite.com, and the spring styles are still there if your kid is more of a Where Is Herbie person.

The pair we’d buy

The Can You Say, for daycare. The strap means they put it on themselves, which is the entire point of the collaboration, and the white sole wipes clean. The Herbie slipper is the gift: buy it for the grandparent who wants to be the one who brought the good present. Skip the sock-top slippers if your kid is the kind who cannot stand anything touching their ankles. You know if you have one.

Stride Rite’s in the club: 20% off when you sign up for texts, and free shipping over $55. See the Stride Rite offer →