Salt Lake City — Learning to put on and tie shoes used to be a rite of passage for kids, but with the debut of Kizik Kids, what used to be a challenge is now a magic trick kids can perform easily. Kizik Kids are the first hands-free shoes that require no bending, no lace tying, no heel crushing, and no time. Instead of sitting down, wiggling feet back and forth, smashing the heel, and then tightening and tying laces, with Kizik Kids, putting on a shoe is as simple as stepping in. The heel of Kizik Kids shoes is designed to compress when stepped on to allow feet to glide in, and then it springs back securing feet inside the shoes. Kids can now spend less time putting on their shoes and more time playing.

“Watching kids put on a pair of Kizik Kids for the first time is like watching them discover they have superhero powers,” says Monte Deere, CEO of Kizik. “Tell kids to put on a normal pair of sneakers without bending down or touching them with their hands, and they’ll look at you like you are playing a joke on them. But ask them to do the same thing with a pair of Kizik Kids, and they’ll instantly be amazed. Kizik Kids are so easy to put on, kids can literally jump into them.”

Kizik Kids are available in three styles – Anaheim, Athens, and Prague – in a variety of colors in sizes 10C to 7Y. To make putting shoes on as simple as possible for the youngest of kids, Kizik Kids in sizes 10C to 3Y have stretch laces and left/right indicator graphics on the footbed. Kizik big kid shoes in sizes 3.5Y to 7Y have removable tie laces. But they only need to be tied once, and from then on, kids can put on their shoes without ever touching the laces or the shoes.

Kizik Kids Prague and Athens are modeled after the adult versions of the Kizik shoes, and kids can get the same color as their parents for a matching look or embrace a unique style with kids-only colorways. Other shoe features in the Kizik Kids collection include breathable uppers, Rabbit Foam™ outsole, which is designed for ultimate cushion and comfort all day, and full high-abrasion rubber tread. The Kizik Kids Prague shoe has a traditional sneaker aesthetic, with stitched seams at the toe and on the heel, and white outsoles and laces, except for the blackout sneaker with black laces, outsole, and body. The Anaheim and Athens shoes impart a non-stop, ready-for-action feeling with external, hands-free cages on the heels and bold or traditional color options.

Kizik has completed hundreds of thousands of tests to ensure the durability and lifespan of its shoes. Every Kizik shoe goes through a step-in test during the initial design process, and testing has found that the Kizik spring-back heel is still going strong after 70,000+ compressions. Instead of shoes that look worn out and destroyed after just a few weeks of wear, with Kizik Kids, parents can have the peace of mind that their kids will love the magic of the shoes and that the shoes have the durability and resilience to withstand even the most active childhood.

Kizik Kids are available now at www.kizik.com.