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You Do Not Have a Shoe Size
- theriddlr 4y agoThe shoe should fit the foot, not the other way around. Wearing shoe-shaped shoes deforms the feet and atrophies the natural shock-absorbing function. https://www.vivobarefoot.com/uk/blog/follow-feet-not-fashion https://www.vivobarefoot.com/uk/blog/follow-feet-not-fashion
- kemitchell 4y agoThe "barefoot" phenom is a current fashion. And a recurring one. Most of their marketing points---down to radiographs of feet crammed in shoes---go at least as far back as Munson's book on military footwear. Fashionable shoes have more pointed toe boxes, but a well fitted Oxford doesn't smash the toes into its point. The toes lie naturally, with empty space ahead. The last designers literally build up the toeboxes. Stand with your feet flat on the floor, barefoot, then lift one one heel as far as you can while pressing the ball into the floor. How much wider do your toes splay, at their maximum? I'm all for people using tools to try toe running. Rucking, too. I wouldn't toe run in combat boots, and I wouldn't ruck in "zero-drop shoes". I wouldn't do either in a size too small.
- tpmx 4y agoShoe sizes should be at least 2D.
- jrockway 4y agoYou're talking about widths, right? You can definitely buy varying widths, but only some brands sell wide shoes, and even then, you are very limited. (I have very wide feet. Saucony is pretty much the only brand that consistently has models that can fit me.)
- tpmx 4y agoYeah. Widths are very badly defined. I also have wide feet; in Europe I find that some random Ecco models fit me well, but finding them is a puzzle every time. They're even worse than Apple when it comes to model name consistency over the years.
- IIsi50MHz 4y ago/Worse/ than Apple? But…Apple enjoy designating something like "Model: M1136" and using that same designation over, seemingly, decades of variation, such that Apple staff have to ask about various attributes to identify anything: "You say that's a 2019 iMac? Does it have x RAM or y RAM? An n GB drive, or o GB? With ATI FoonlyX 646 graphics? Late 2019 or early?" Somehow, Apple Computer Inc. were somewhat competent to select model numbers, but Apple, Inc. is not. (-:
- imoverclocked 4y agoI recently went shopping for boots that I can get work done on a step clay hillside. I went through the entire store (whose primary merchandise is boots) to end up with exactly one pair that didn’t squeeze my feet the wrong way. Running shoes in the past was a similar struggle. Some people hate looking at toe-shoes (aka VFFs) but they consistently fit like a glove for me. Too bad they don’t support at all!
- steanne 4y agoyep. wide toes, normal heels. i ended up in toe shoes too.
- noman-land 4y agoCheck out some of the "barefoot shoes" brands. They tend to run wide. Lems are comfortable on day 1. https://www.lemsshoes.com/ https://www.lemsshoes.com/
- tatersolid 4y agoBeware, that website is unusable. I have very wide feet and only moderate nearsightedness. The Lems site has white text on yellow backgrounds, overrides browser chosen font size, and seems to distort badly on zoom on my iPhone. I like really can’t read or use the website. You lost a potential customer, idiots in Lems marketing team. Do some real world testing next time.
- ianburrell 4y agoI also have wide feet. I discovered Merrell has wide sizes of outdoors shoes. I found models fit and I like, and just keeping buying them as they wear out.
- jrockway 4y agoI can definitely relate to this. I feel like my shoes fit differently from day to day. Sometimes they're perfect. Sometimes it feels like my feet are going to explode my shoes from the inside. All very interesting.
- Overtonwindow 4y agoNot to seem glib, but have you spoken to a podiatrist? The reason I ask, is that my chess teacher would complain about his shoes fitting differently every day, and his doctor found that it was just his feet swelled considerably. In his case, it was due to an underlining health issue
- kemitchell 4y agoThe other comment recommending a doctor query is right. If it's affecting daily life, best to check it. That said, feet do tend to swell as days go on, especially active days. That's why nearly every guide to sizing recommends measuring late in the day.
- sublinear 4y agoMaybe I'm missing the point, but... well, why would anyone think that feet grow into discrete sizes like that or that the shoe sizes would be precise while still being comfortable?
- 0_____0 4y agoI suspect that people familiar with buying womens' wear are much less prone to this mistake, seeing as how one person might fit two or three size increments depending on brand.
- sublinear 4y agoSizes don't vary between brands as much as they vary between the materials used. That's true for all clothing. The second reason would be vanity sizing: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanity_sizing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanity_sizing
- 0xcde4c3db 4y agoYet another reason is that quality control tends to be pretty terrible for anything but boutique/luxury brands (and even they have their missteps). There are situations where you can buy multiple of the same SKU and wind up with stuff manufactured in three different countries with obviously different fabric quality and measurements off by multiple inches. There's been something like a "marathon to the bottom" across things like clothing, shoes, and just about anything else textile-adjacent for almost a century. You can find articles from 50+ years ago lamenting how clothing used to last longer and have more consistent quality, and it's only gotten worse since then.
- plg 4y agoI don't understand why in the year 2023 with what ... 15 years of the "long tail" of the internet, we don't have mass market shoe companies that will scan your feet (e.g. in an in-store kiosk, or using your iphone (hello lidar!)) and then shop you shoes that fit your feet exactly. this from a guy with one foot size 12.8 and the other foot size 13.6. My feet have hurt every day since I was a teenager PS I would pay, like a lot, to get shoes to fit my feet exactly
- Connor_Creegan1 4y agoSomething similar exists: bondenoshoes.com
- TurkishPoptart 4y agoNot sure if I can't justify spending $1k+ on a pair of shoes.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Klayy 4y agoI've been buying shoes online from eobuwie.pl for years. I scanned my feet once and that was it. Maybe a store like that doesn't exist in your country, but it's definitely a thing.
- DylanSp 4y agoSome stores do have machines that scan your feet, but that doesn't mean they'll have a shoe of exactly the correctly size in stock.
- cafard 4y agoI remember from Sports Illustrated that Dave Cowens, then center for the Boston Celtics, belonged to some organization that swapped odd-sized shoes. Given that NBA centers tend to have unusually large feet, one might have thought it unlikely that he could have found someone else with unusually large feet, but disproportioned symmetrically. Yet apparently he did.
- crazygringo 4y agoIt still baffles me how different shoe sizes are for the same foot. I'm a 12.5 in most modern sneakers and a 12 in most modern dress shoes (already annoying that they label differently) but then I'm a 13 in certain New Balance and 11.5 in certain Converse. And this is just length, not width or anything. It's so bizarre they can't just work out a consistent measurement label for length.
- etrautmann 4y agoPart of this issue is that sizing is a moving target on both sides. For many sports you size up or down for the desired performance fit, so companies don’t want to buck the trend even if it’s more accurate, since they’ll end up with unhappy customers.
- nevertoolate 4y agoI wear “barefoot style” sandals throughout the year. Winters are OK here with the occasional dip below freezing. I carry woolen socks as emergency measure. Picking size is easy, you only need to measure the sole area. If you go a bit above in size it is possible to cut down from the sole with scissors. This style of footwear makes my life a lot simpler.
- russellbeattie 4y agoMy heal isn't shaped like everyone else's I think, so many nice shoes cut into my tendon so badly, I have to try every one to make sure I can walk without sharp pain. In college I bought a pair of Doc Martens and just about crippled myself before just giving up and taking a hammer to them. (Yes, literally.) After beating the crap out of the back of them I was finally able to use them without blood being shed. Not something you can do to most shoes though.
- michelb 4y agoThis is my problem as well. I usually have to modify the shoe or wear some tape or a silicone band around my foot. I would love to simply pick a shoe and have no pain.
- gregors 4y agopro tip - use the EU sizing instead of the US. I've noticed I get on the whole much better results. I also wear a "13" but I noticed that the "13" that fit me generally are 47.5. I've seen the following sizes for the US "13" 46, 47, 47.5, 48 ....so I generally do better when I select sizes by the EU ones.
- IIsi50MHz 4y agoJapan sizes in centimeters, precision to 0.5 cm. I always look for this.
- simonblack 4y agoAs the man says, we need to shop for shoes just like clothing. I keep telling my wife that a dress size is merely a guide, and to start a size or two low then keep increasing till the dress fits. Who cares what that final number happens to be. I live in trainers. I have learned that my size and model is New Balance model 624 in a 4E wide and a size 42 European. I use the European sizing by preference because it gives a finer sizing than the British or American sizing. It's almost frightening that I can walk into the shoe store and walk out again in less than two minutes with my shoes. But if I want to buy any other shoes, I have great difficulty. Invariably, the shoes on sale are not wide enough. Sometimes I have bought shoes in a larger size like a 43 or even a 44 to get enough width. But almost invariably again, they are just NQR. And forget about elastic-sided shoes. They are just so tight that I can't even get my foot into the ones with the correct length. I would love a pair of espadrilles. Yeah, right. Dream on. As I said above, I live in trainers. They're the only ones that 'fit right'.
- cafard 4y agoNew Balance is great for people with very wide feet. I'm not one of them, but have had friends who do.
- kemitchell 4y agoI have never worn a dress, but I've learned that dress sizes are worse than feeble guidance. They have become, for certain brands and items, a sales lever. And a subtly cruel one one at that. Menswear brands creep ever closer to parity. Measure waist and leg on a pair of new Levi's sometime! I like European shoe sizing for putting everyone on scale: men, women, adults, children, everyone. But I understand those sizes refer to last length, rather than foot length. The higher numbers lend a sense of precision, but the limiting factor is what shoe lasts the manufacture uses, not how they number them. Europeans measure in Paris points, or 2/3 of a centimeter. The US and UK measure in barleycorns, or 1/3 of an inch. 1/3 * 1 in * 2.54 cm per in = 0.847 cm, which is very close. And there are often half sizes. There is a pretty, clean, uniform system, Mondopoint, which makes a lot more sense. Basically nobody uses it. Ski boots, I'm told. The wiser online sellers publish fit tables based on heel-toe length, Imperial and metric. When they offer different widths, they publish tables with ball circumferences. Not linear widths, like Brannocks measure.