A Strong Coffee

If you have read my starting school post, you will know that I recommend a mix of branded and non branded school uniform. When Matalan asked me if I would like to review their school uniform, I gladly accepted. Firstly as I had never really thought of buying uniform from there before and secondly as middle man came home with a hole in his shoes at the same time as big man came home with a hole in his trousers!

So first up are the trousers. For me the most important thing to look for in boys school trousers is an adjustable waist. I have made the mistake of buying cheaper trousers before that don't have this and it has been a false economy. If you can add on that they are hard wearing and stain resistant for a reasonable price then I am happy. Coming in at £7 a pair for my 8 year old, I think this is a reasonable price as they have ticked all the boxes. Again the shorts have the same feature and like the trousers are Mumsnet rated as well.



The polo shirts and jumper have also been good. So far they don't appear to have shrunk in the tumble dryer. I have purchased school jumpers before that cant be tumbled dried which with 3 boys is a nightmare. My first reaction was that the yellow polo shirt was a little light in colour but otherwise is good.

Lastly as I said at the beginning of my post, middle man came home with a hole in his school shoes. His £50 less than a year old school shoes. I have always bought branded school shoes for the boys. In my head, they were better for them. However, seeing that the both my primary boys school shoes are falling apart, I decided that I would try the leather school shoes from Matalan. They have a much more palatable price tag of £16.


I would say that they are on the large side, as we needed to go into store and change them for a smaller pair. The exchange was simple. Middle man has no complaints about them. They appear to fit him well. After a few weeks the leather has faded on the front quite a lot but this is nothing a bit of polish wont fix. I am now considering whether it is worth changing my mind on where to buy my children's school shoes from as at the end of the day they trash the shoes no matter how much you pay for them.

So to sum up, I have been impressed with the uniform from Matalan. It ticks all the boxes. Yes you can buy cheaper products elsewhere but I would argue that the quality would not be the same. Would I purchase uniform from them? Using their free delivery to store - yes.