I was born with feet in the 1st percentile of the population and they stayed that way even despite getting taller. Now every shoe shopping experience is awkward af.
I was born with feet in the 1st percentile of the population and they stayed that way even despite getting taller. Now every shoe shopping experience is awkward af.
You have different shoe sizes for men and women? WTF?
Just so you know: Women shoes are different in both width and length*.
Probably because men often need wider shoes.
Where do you live that they don’t?
In Japan everyone knows their shoe size in centimeters. Those stay the same regardless of gender or whatever other crazy unrelated topic to how big something is.
Measuring like that would be even easier in the US, where the answer would always be simply “one foot”.
It’s normal for men to have wider feet, with a wider and longer toebox compared to the length of the foot. Length is only one dimension of several. (Though a lot of people don’t think to replace their shoes for arches.)
It’s unclear how much of that is upbringing. The toebox length is gendered, but toe and foot width go up wen spending a lot of time barefoot, and toe width goes down in pointed shoes that can eve n make toes ‘tuck’ and cause bunions.
A women’s 9 1/2 double-wide fits me about the same as a plain Men’s 7. Women’s dress shoes are rarely in wide, and NEVER double-wide. Though I’ve found success with Aussie brands because going barefoot is normal there and so the shoes are often wider for everyone. We’re also seeing the toebox become a more slanted natural foot shape, instead of the weird point symmetrical one.
Bodies can be complicated, and one size/shape isn’t for everyone. The way we live and dress absolutely changes the shoes we need, too.
Yes but the number doesn’t have to change. Just like in the US, they use letters to denote relative foot wdith vs. the average. No need for multiple numbering schemes.
The letters denoting widths exist, but they’re not used. Very few US shoe brands offer different widths on the same size shoe. Some offer two. A handful three, and now you’re talking about workwear, not trainers or anything else. Generally, US shoe widths are decided by whether it’s a mens or womens model.
That would make it a foot measurement, not a shoe size.
This is probably gonna blow your mind. But most shoes are worn on feet. Crazy, uh?
It would except for the fact that shoe sizes here, from babies to adults are only sized in centimetres. If there are international sizes printed on the shoes, they have no meaning to residents in Japan. Check the tag inside your shoes; If they have international sizes printed on them, you’ll see Japan’s is in centimetres, and may have EE (or more Es) next to it to denote width. If there is nothing, then they are standard width.
Children’s clothing is also sized in centimetres. Makes things really simple.
Shoe sizes are Unisex here in in Europe as well as in Asia. And in Asia they are even smarter - they simply use centimeters, while we use “Paris Points” of 2/3s of a centimeter.