Shoe Size Confusion

Trouble finding the right sized footwear, You're not alone?

Hi everybody, so as this incredible summer continues.. It feels like the sunshine’s gone on almost as long as the rain did during the winter. Back then, I was loving the wellies, and the walking footwear but since mid-May I don’t think I’ve spent more than a couple of days out of my flip-flops or light summer shoes. Don’t get me wrong I’m far from complaining as I’m not going abroad this year, so the odd weekend at the beach is much appreciated.

The Birkenstocks have been unbelievably popular this year and if you want to grab the sandal of the summer, you can buy them from Mastershoe-Myshu with free UK delivery. Our Earth Spirits have been a major seller too and going by the response in our high street stores, they’re one of the comfiest pieces of women’s footwear we’ve ever sold.

Anyway, this week seeing as there can be such a variation in sizes for different footwear, especially our Birkenstock sandals I thought I would bring your attention to the different circumstances around this. For example, did you know that you get a separate men’s UK size and Women’s UK sizes, but with some brands you also get a unisex size guide to accommodate both males and female UK sizes in one. All of this is before you even consider the US and European equivalents. You’d think that it can’t be that difficult, you get your ruler out and the size it measures is the size you advertise. That would just be too easy though! We'll be following this up later in the year as well.  There are so many different things to consider when sizing shoes and getting that perfect fit but we hope this gives you a good insight to start with.

You see a brand sizing their shoe styles will take in to consideration a number of factors. If they are creating a sports shoe you will often find you need something slightly larger this can be to accommodate for the sports socks or possibly a thicker, cushioned insole for impact absorption. Also if you have been on your feet all day or the weather is very warm then your feet are likely to have swollen and this can impact on your true size. Then you get other brands like Birkenstock who actually design their sandals to be particularly spacious. Some people will need to buy a size smaller than their usual size. So, it’s easy to see how it starts to get quite confusing.

People will then have different shaped feet, even your own two feet will vary slightly in shape and size, over times shoes will also stretch and although your last shoes may have been a little small, once they’ve stretched a little you convince yourself that’s your actual size. Then you can have higher arches or wider toes than standard or equally the opposite and while one size may fit one day another shoe on another day could feel completely different and very rarely are two people exactly the same.. So over the course of your lifetime your feet can drastically change.

Shoe shop fitting expertise

For the ladies however it then gets even more confusing, if girls want to buy boots they want something that won’t just fit the foot but also their legs. So they have the problem of the calf fitting. In reality the size of a shoe is never really as simple as sticking a ruler to it. There is so much to take into consideration and occasionally at times it can easily result in the wrong size being bought but if you are looking for something new, don’t be afraid to ask questions a good seller will be happy to answer any number of questions about length, widths or supports. If you go into a store, try them on, see what you think. You never know, you might actually prefer a something slightly larger or smaller. The people in there will have been well-trained and while there’ s rarely a one size fits all solution you can guarantee with the companies who care, they’ll often go the extra mile to help ensure you get what you need.

At Mastershoe-Myshu we include all the main conversions at the bottom of our product descriptions as well as other measurements which we think you’ll find useful in our descriptions, like calf widths, heel heights or boot heights. Ultimately we’d like to ensure it’s as easy as possible for you we’re more than happy to bring out the tape measure.

I hope this helps and although they can vary from brand to brand we’re passionate about getting you the right shoes first time, so if you do have a question we’ll always do what we can to find you the right solution.


Cheers for now!

Glen