I have never, ever had a pair of Stride Rite's wear as poorly as these did.  My daughter didn't start wearing these until the end of May, and even over the summer, where she wore sandals or flip flops or simply went barefoot majority of the time, these are absolutely trashed.  The very tiny character image in the heart on the side is gone, the silver is worn down to black, the sequins are gone.  I have 9 kids and buy Stride Rite sneakers almost exclusively for the littler ones - at least 10 pairs a year for the last several years - and I've never seen anything like this.  The Ariel (Little Mermaid) Stride Rite's that she wore for almost the entire last school year (Sept - May) look 10 times better than these do.  Hopefully the next bunch wear better.