Like most mothers, Rebecca Kilburn wants to provide everything her children need, including the basic necessities like shoes.

That’s proving to be a struggle with her 14-year-old son Eric Jr. The teenager has size 23 feet – for now – and his mom is desperately looking for someone who will make shoes in that size at an affordable price.

“At 14, he’s still growing,” she said. “Most kids this big and tall at this age have an endocrine disorder and he does not. He has no health issues with exponential growth.”

Eric Kilburn does have health issues that result from not being able to find the correct size shoes, however. The 6-foot, 10-inch freshman at Goodrich High School in Michigan has endured six painful procedures on his feet to fix in-grown toenails, finally resulting in the permanent removal of the nails on his largest two toes.

He also sprained his ankle this fall while playing on the junior varsity football team, which may have been avoidable if he’d had cleats instead of just sneakers.

Eric has not had cleats, nor snow boots for Michigan winters, for five years.

“It would mean everything just to have shoes that fit me,” Eric said.

Resorting to Crocs

When Eric was born, the obstetrician who delivered him turned to her husband, Eric Sr., and told him their son had the biggest feet he’d ever seen on a newborn, Rebecca said. The doctor accurately predicted their son’s feet wouldn’t fit into baby shoes.

Still, Rebecca, who stands 6-2, and Eric Sr., who is 6-5, never anticipated the trouble they would have with finding shoes for their firstborn years down the road.

When Eric Jr. was in first grade, his mother, who wears a woman’s size 12, could already slip her son’s shoes on to go to the mailbox. By the time he was in seventh grade, the size of his feet had become a serious issue. Rebecca recruited close friends and family to be on the lookout for shoes in his then-size 17, and for larger sizes in anticipation of future growth.