Most of the world has the same shoes. Unless you are getting pirated products, you will find the same Adidas in Cluj as you would in Tokyo or New York City. We tested store brand shoes.
You might order shoes online from Polish, Finnish or American companies if you want barefoot shoes. These might not be available in stores in Cluj, but you’ll find the same shoes as customers from other countries if you order direct from the manufacturer.
Where you will see a difference is when you buy store brand shoes. Americans and Brits may not have access to the shoes from the likes of Auchan, Carrefour, and Kaufland. And even if they have Lidl, they may not think to review the shoes from there.
So, we bought and tried a few different store brand shoes, and this is what we found.
Auchan.
Auchan had a few good and many terrible pairs of shoes. The main problem with Auchan shoes was the insole of many of their shoes would get loose. Not only would this lead to discomfort, but the glue that was meant to keep them in place would rip your socks.
However, Auchan did have some nice sandals and men’s dress shoes, which have not presented a problem. Some of their old running shoes also seemed okay. Unfortunately, these shoes do not appear to be available anymore, at least not at the large Auchan’s in Cluj. But, the terrible insole shoes have also been recalled.
Some of these bad shoes seemed good for a couple of weeks, but they didn’t last long. It isn’t worth getting cheap shoes if you need to get a new pair every month, or if they last even less than a month.
Kaufland
With Kaufland, the insole problem seemed to be even more common. Every pair of shoes we bought at kaufland had problems with the insoles getting loose. With one pair of running shoes, there was no glue keeping the insole in place, so at least the insole didn’t destroy our socks.
Carrefour
At Carrefour, we found a nice pair of rubber loafers. These shoes are great for the beach (if there is no glass or other hazardous debris) but are not suitable for long city walks.
Sports shops
We don’t have time to list all the sports shops we visited. However, as long as the shoes fit, all the sport shops we tried had insoles that stayed in place and therefore did not destroy our socks.
The sizes and shapes of shoes from sports shops, even from the same brand, varried immensly. So, we do recommend you try on shoes. I would not buy shoes online from sports shops, because the size variations are so unpredictable from one shoe style to the next, yes, even within the same line.
Clothing shops
We found those cheap clothing shops, like C &A, did not produce any comfortable shoes that fit. Therefore, we didn’t take any home to see how well they would hold up to walks through the town.
Conclusion
Like in the UK, sports shops make the best own-brand shoes. It sometimes seems that the major supermarkets made poor quality shoes on purpose, in order to punish customers who don’t spend a lot on shoes. However, some store brand shoes actually cost more than cheaper varieties of name brand shoes.
While supermarkets in Romania often have high quality own-brand items, shoes are typically not one of them.
Side note
We hear that earlier this year, or was it last, the last shoemaker in Cluj retired. That shoemaker, Grigore Lup, had already reached the New York Post when he created special social-distancing shoes with very long toes.
Lup’s big contribution was to create authentic traditional Romanian shoes. Just last month, he participated in the local Transilvania fashion shoe, or show. There you could see the master and his shoes.
And you might see a lot of traditional dancers in town wearing his shoes.