shoe sizes - european shoe size - american shoe sizes - international shoe sizes - British shoe sizes conversion tables for American, Australian, British, Canadian, European, Japanese, Mexican, New Zealand, Inches, Centimetres, Mondopoint metric shoe sizes, Why vegan? / Eating the Earth
This chart is based on library & web research, as well as some thought about the internal logic of the systems.
The English system is thirds of an inch, starting roughly at four or eight inches for children or adults. Four and eight inches used to be called one hand or two hands, with four inches being width of a hand and an inch the length between the end of your thumb and the middle crease. A hand or hand-width was the common measure for horses, and works well for foot measures as one hand is about the length of a baby's foot, to start the childrens' size scale, and two hands is about the length of a small adult foot, to start the adult size scale. Thirds of an inch used to be called barley corns, after the corns you can make beer out of that are about a third of an inch long.
At this point the system becomes more hi-tec, because cobblers would use a bit of stick, more or less designed for the purpose of measuring shoes rather than feet. A shoe should be about one size larger then the foot it surrounds, so the first mark on a measuring stick would be one hand and one third of an inch, rather than the round number of one hand or four inches exactly.
Foot length gages are more common than shoe length gages. They are is unisex, although womens' feet tend to be narrower at the heel than mens'. A man wearing women's shoes would be well advised to try a few pairs on first (transvestite mail-order is a difficult business as court shoes are traditionally worn tight) and likewise a woman wearing a transvestite's court shoe might find it more comfortable with a couple of pads glued-in to the sides. For most looser-fitting styles, unisex designs are possible and work well, although some manufacturers use separate lasts or moulds for making mens & womens shoes in the same pattern.
In America, people complicated the system by introducing a length difference between two separate scales for mens & womens shoes. I would very much like to know why! - please contact me if you can clarify, by clicking this link. This website has been visited by thousands of people since I first asked that question, and so far nobody has come-up with an explanation. The reasons are probably messy. Sizing was a source of debate amongst trade associations and even led to patented systems at the end of the last century. This is what Bata, an international shoe manufacturer say on their table and web page:
There are glimpses of a pattern of logic here. The difference in base size is a quarter of a size, as though someone had decided to move womens shoes and mens shoes half a size apart in length. The motive could be to make them more equal in width.
In most of the world, people use the metric or European system. Because the centimetre is larger than the difference you would want between two sizes of shoe to try-on, European countries settle for intervals of two-thirds of a centimetre, which for lack of a better name is called a Paris Point.
People have been frustrated by the difficulty in metricating shoe sizes or even shoe lengths for many years. In the Soviet Union there was an attempt to introduce ordinary centimetres instead of Paris Points, but, rather than make shoes which wobbled about on peoples' feet, factories simply stamped Paris Point sizes on shoes with a length in centimetres written underneath. In Japan the idea has caught-on better: people simply give their foot length in centimetres. In Australia, standards organisations attempted the same thing, recommending millimetre lengths described as "Mondopoint", meaning world point, and in the UK the British Standards Institution has followed. These measurements tend only to be used for more technical shoes. There are several reasons for difficulties:
I have not been able to find a standard for widths, which are a measure of a D-shaped cross-section around a foot. Some companies use width; others girth.
If anyone spots any mistakes on this table or has any ideas to simplify, please let me know. A collection of other measuring systems is here. Replies are at the bottom of the page.
here's a comment: your name: KIAN message: hey very useful page thatnx just one thing... ladies jacket table thingy the waist measurement for a size 12 shouldn't be 66 i don't think :D
inches (chest)
(waist)
(hips)
cm (chest)
This JavaScript calculator is on the web without the author's name, so I can't thank him...
Enter a shoe size value into any box. The remaining boxes will automatically be updated when you press tab or click the mouse with the cursor in another box
Replies to my "very much like to know" question, above:
4/2007 "Being American, my experience is that this sort of conundrum is brought about by vanity. It has never been in fashion for women to have large feet. Being country of shameless capitalists, surely a meeting of the industry minds brought about a different standard last so women would be be able to claim a low number as their shoe size.
This is said in light of the fact that I CONSTANTLY see women all over the USA (and I travel a lot) wearing shoes that are obviously too small (and uncomfortable) for them. It is never enough where american vanity is involved."
10/2007 "Bit confused about the comparison chart, it says that a uk size 11 is equal to a Eur 46. Yet every size 11 I own says Uk 11 Eur 45. I have seen other sites that say a Uk 11 is Eur 45.5, and some say Uk 11 is Eur 45.7 Regards John Broadbent" Reply: the comparison comes from the yellow plastic foot length gage, which shoes UK11= 46; 45=UK 10¼ I've just double-checked on the javascript calculator and am relieved that it says the same thing. So does the Brannock size chart. I sell safety boots on another page which are listed as 46 / UK 10½ and the Bata .pdf size chart above shows 46=10. This is a new mystery.
.