Shoe Size – Measuring Your Feet to Get the Right Fit

That approach is fine if you are in a shop and able to try on a pair of shoes, but it has major drawbacks if either, you want to buy a pair of shoes online, or you have feet of a slightly different size.

Measuring your shoe size accurately and correctly

The following procedure will enable you to accurately measure both of your feet and you can then use a sizing table to determine the precise fit-size of the footwear that you want to buy.

Repeat the following for each foot.

Step 1

On a flat and even surface carefully draw around your foot on a piece of paper.

Step 2

Using the pencil imprint of your foot, measure the length and width of the foot carefully with a ruler or tape measure. The width measurement should be taken at the widest point and, for UK and USA sizing, take the measurements in inches with the accuracy level being 1/8th of an inch.

Step 3

You make the determination based upon how close you felt the tracing line was to the actual foot.

Step 4

You will now have separate length and width dimensions for each foot and it will be immediately apparent if you have one foot substantially larger than the other. If both feet are of a similar size, then you can buy your shoes in pairs, however if you have a significant discrepancy between the feet it may be advisable to buy an un-matching pair of shoes. Step 5

Now equipped with the dimensions of your feet you need to convert those measurements into useable shoe sizes and this is done using an appropriate shoe/foot size chart. You simply find the dimension of your feet in inches and line that up with the shoe fitting size on the chart.

Shoe size charts

There are different size charts for men’s and women’s feet and there are also different size charts for different nations. i.e. The USA, UK and mainland Europe all have different sizing charts.

A Quick Guide to Measuring Your Child’s Feet

Unlike adults, children’s feet grow at an alarming rate. However one of the main problems that you are likely to experience when you buy your child new shoes is not knowing their correct shoe size. A shoe that fits properly is extremely important to children, especially young children. So again it is about getting them the right shoe size.

What follows is a rough guide to how to measure a child’s foot.

1)All too often people try to measure shoe size without taking into consideration the extra room needed in the shoe for socks.

2) Have your child stand up when taking the measurement. This way you can get a better idea of the length and width of the child’s feet

3) Make sure you keep your child’s feet flat.

4) Measure the foot from the heel to the big toe.

5) Take the measurements in centimetres for European sizes and inches for US sizes.

6) When your children try on their shoes make sure they have room to wiggle their feet. If the big toe presses against the top of the shoe then the shoes are too small. Alternatively if it’s too far down from the tip of the shoe then the shoes are too big.

7) Get your child to walk around in them and pay attention to their heels. If your child’s heel keeps slipping out of the shoe then it means that the shoes are too big

Lastly make sure when buying shoes that you take into account the child’s growth. So buy shoes that are at a maximum half a size bigger – but no more so. Remember children’s feet grow quickly so this makes economic sense.

I would still recommend that you get your child’s feet measured properly as you can get a much more accurate measurement in the shoe store compared to home measurements.