Hobibear1 reviews

A decent idea, poor follow-through on delivery and service 23 March 2026

commuting into town, walking the dog, popping to the shops, that sort of thing. I’m not fussy, but I do expect basic quality and an order that matches what I paid for. This time I didn’t get either.
The whole thing started with a bent-in toe box on the first pair — the front of the shoe had collapsed so that when I tried to coax it back into shape with my fingers it just folded and stayed dented. You notice that immediately when you put them on; they don’t feel solid underfoot. Customer service replied pretty quickly but their answer was basically, “oh, that happens sometimes in mass production,” and an offer to return for refund or exchange. Fine, I boxed them up and sent them back, because I didn’t want to hang on to something dodgy.
I reordered straight away to avoid more faff, picked my usual size (42) and waited. When the replacement arrived it had the wrong size: 43. Not a tiny fault like a scratch, but the whole shoe was too big. It sat on my foot like a loose shell, moving separately from my heel and making walking feel unnecessarily wobbly. I told customer service and got a bland apology. Over and over it was just short messages saying sorry, not really addressing that a one-size difference in a wider-than-normal shoe makes it almost unusable for me.
There were other oddities too. The pair I received was described as grey but had an obvious orange hue near the toe — not a subtle tint, but a noticeable colour mismatch. Again the reply was that this could happen in mass production and sometimes colour shifts occur. That might be fine if you’re buying rough-and-ready work boots, but for something you plan to wear every day it’s disappointing. I asked for compensation and the amount they proposed was tiny — barely any percentage of what I paid. It felt like they thought a handful of change would make me forget spending over a week dealing with returns and wrong items.
Delivery was another sore point. Returning items and getting replacements took about ten days total, which is longer than I’d expect for something sold as a regular consumer purchase. In the meantime I had to limp around in other trainers, and that small daily irritation adds up. What annoyed me most was a nagging suspicion that the replacement I received may have been a returned item that was repackaged and resent locally. I’m in the same country where their operations run, so it wouldn’t surprise me if returns aren’t sent far. It’s not a nice thought, and they didn’t do anything to reassure me otherwise.
I’ll give credit where due: their replies came quickly and they weren’t rude. But quick, formulaic apologies aren’t the same as proper customer care. There was no real attempt to understand how the wrong size or a collapsed toe affects daily life — the instability while walking, the awkwardness with socks and insoles, the extra thought you give to every step. It’s the sort of thing you notice constantly, not once. For me this wasn’t worth the hassle, and it left a sense of being a number in an automated process rather than a customer whose experience mattered.
Would I recommend them outright? Not really. If you’re willing to gamble on receiving exactly what you ordered and don’t mind chasing up issues, maybe it’ll be fine. But if you rely on timely delivery, correct sizing and a decent level of human-driven customer service, be prepared to follow up and push for better resolution. I’m mildly annoyed rather than furious — I like the idea of the product and it could’ve been a good, practical pair for day-to-day use. But the delivery mistakes and the impersonal, minimal responses from support meant it wasn’t worth the time or the minor emotional drain of dealing with repeated problems.