DIY - school shoes for sensitive feet

Has anybody found it difficult to find plain black school shoes, textile and pretty open not to overheat small feet over summer? As for me I could not find a proper pair. There are lots of shoes but mostly they are made of thick and stiff leather. For sensitive or sore skin it can be a real trouble.

I failed to find soft textile shoes, plain black, with flexible sole,  size 11 (for some reason they start from size 12 or 13), so I did them myself.

I took these Emerson shoes you can find in every Target or BigW for $5 (sometimes even $3.5 on sale).  They are very soft, and sole is flexible, which is good. But they are really hard for five-year-old to put on due to wide elastic inserts.

Shoes as they were when I bought them. 

 First of all I took off the elastic inserts.

Insole is black and green on some photos - because I made two pairs of shoes, one with green and one with black insoles.  Some photos are of one pair, some of another.

So I got shoes with long soft "tongues". 

Then I folded "tongues" inside and fixed with a few simple hand stitches. 

Now my shoes look well, can be put on very easily and are pretty open for fresh air circulation. 
 The only disadvantage - they appear to be flip-floppy on the feet.

 This was the most difficult part. I fixed small piece of velcro closure on one side of the shoe...












...and elastic strap on the other. I fixed it with my sewing machine. 

This is what I have got. My daughter has been wearing them all the first term, and for the second term we have the second pair.  
Sole on the heel became worn down by the end of the term. They don't last for long, but served us perfectly.

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Main idea of Do-It-Yourself is adjusting the surrounding reality to your personal needs, tastes and interests. It can be astonishingly simple or really complicated, but result must satisfy our individualised inquiries. 
Here is my photo master-class  of how to adjust school shoes for your kid. You might need different adjustments than I did,  but there is the same way of thinking.