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.
Do you have some sort of growth plate deformity? Do you not have growth plates in your feet? I’m disinclined to believe you’re over six feet with feet even smaller than me, in a size 4 in men’s but I’m a 5’2” woman… get size and locomotion are inherently connected, do you use walking canes or a wheelchair? I don’t see how this is possible if you’re otherwise normal sized
As a woman, I think it’s stupid that shoes are gendered in the first place. My shoe size is in the realm that exists for both men’s and women’s shoes. So in shoe stores I can grab the same sneakers from the women’s and the men’s section. Just sort the damn shoes by size and let people pick the ones they like ffs.
The first few decades of my life I assumed that there’d been all sorts of important orthopaedic/podiatry research done into the difference between men and women’s feet, gaits etc that meant wearing sports shoes sold as “women’s” would in some way cause my feet long term harm. Nope, it was bullshit marketing all along.
I wouldn’t be surprised if on average women’s feet were narrower than men’s, but even if that’s the case, just make narrow and wide versions of shoes and let people pick the ones that fit their feet. Surely there are men with narrow feet and women with wide feet. It just makes no sense.
I have had to wear shoes 1 (or .5 depending upon the model) number larger due to wide fronts.
Barefoot shoes! Started wearing them 2 years ago and will never go back. I hadn’t even realized how much regular shoes crammed my toes together until I started wearing actually foot-shaped shoes. And my feet are narrow.
I’ve heard of them quite a bit.
Might try if I get the chance.
I recently learned that there’s a size rating for width. It goes from A to E, and says something about the length/width ratio of the shoe. Made my previous shoes a lot easier to buy (I also struggle to find wide enough shoes).
Goes further than that, my feet are technically 11EEEEEE but I usually have to get a 12EE since basically no one in the world makes 6E if not custom made.
Well, guess I need to look for my width rating.
Not that it matters, because the shop ppl won’t understand.
And even if they do, it’s useless if they don’t have what I need.
Not just shoes, all clothes. We can come up with better terms, like tapered or straight line. Whatever would be most descriptive. It’s ridiculous.
To be fair, I don’t think it’s “ridiculous” to sort e.g. jeans into the broad categories of “typically wider or slipper hips/thighs compared to length” or t-shirts into “typically broader back vs. typically larger chest”.
The mens/women’s categories are probably the coarsest categories that makes sense, since the average man’s and women’s body are so different in so many ways.
The point is that you described it exactly as it could be described without using gendered terms.
Why do they measure your feet as an adult? Is that common in the US? I don’t think i had my feet measured since I was 15 or so.
Edit: I also want to applaude you for wearing Spiderman socks in this specific post!
Cause it takes about 30 seconds and makes sure you actually have the right size shoe.
Speak for yourself… I use my Brannock device each morning to check my feet and see if my junk got bigger from the chemicals.
I don’t think anybody is asking to measure his feet, but these measurement devices are practically everywhere that shoes are sold, so it’s easy to check for yourself.
—what size?
—three
—… please come this way
It’s absolutely not common unless you’re getting custom shoes or some other 1%er activity
Every shoe store I have ever been to, including thrift stores, had one of those foot measuring things.
Thrift store? Believe it or not, 1%er activity.
REAL people make their own shoes out of roadkill….
damned 1%
Do you NOT try to fit into any clothing you buy?
I never buy clothes online, exactly because I always try them on to check the fit before buying them. I haven’t measured my feet since I was around 15. I know my foot size, so I know that shoes in the range 42-43 are a good fit, depending on the shoe model. I don’t need to measure my feet when I buy shoes to confirm that they’re still around size 42.5.
I mean, your feet typically don’t really change size after you grow up? I just buy whatever size I last bought.
Edit: tho to be fair it’s not even always the same size because the size that’s comfortable highly depends from shoe to shoe, I always have to try on a few pairs to be sure.
Depends on if you get into barefoot style shoes or not.
I’m just confused by why you keep getting your feet measured. I haven’t done that since my feet stopped growing, I know my size by this point
How I imagine it:
“I’m size 3”
“No you’re not”
“Yes I am”
“You can’t be”
“BRING THE DEVICE”
Or like look at the size 3 they currently are wearing.
Yeah but maybe their toes are just jammed up all the way to the front and they don’t know how shoes work! You never know!
I only got my feet measured for a new pair of running shoes at a new running store that just opened up. You’re right - I don’t have to combat the Brannock device on a regular basis.
Skinny 5’3 guy here. I’ve had that experience buying pants. “Maybe you’ll find something in the kids’ section”.
Those are not bad. They fit better and honestly look better. Tight shirts shouldn’t only be for buff guys.
Went out with my cousin who is 5’ 4". He buys pants at the kid section.
I tried to poke fun at him and this short king eviscerated me how I had to pay a “Height tax” since his clothes are durable and cheaper.
180cm tall guy, with longl back and short legs. Actually knowing it’s impossible to find pants that are short enough has made buying them easier. Once I accept I need to take them to a seamstress to have them shortened anyway, I just need to find a pair with the right width.
Sadly no such simple solution for most shirts out there being too short.
I have the same problem with shirts. If it fits across my chest it’s too short, if it fits length wise it is baggy across chest and stomach.
Recently I found a brand that offers a extra long sizes. Eg if the sizes are Small, medium and large they offer small+, medium+, large+. The only difference is the cut is 5 cm longer.
Get a sewing maching, even better, an overlock. Buy the bigger/longer size and sew them thinner. Its surprisingly not that hard.
So I’m not sure if you know this, but in the US the big kids sizes and the adult men’s sizes are the same. For example, a men’s 5 is the same as a big kid’s 5.
Next time you need to use a Brannock device and you’re sized out, have them get the one for the kids.
I swear to fuck there was another lemmy user that was really tall but had like size 4 feet and there was a pretty cool AMA
Ya I remember that. They had a pic of them in business attire I think
Edit: Here is that post:
https://lemmings.world/post/19924381
Same person
Dope, they’ll go down in Lemmy history for having funny proportions
Yes, I remember this too! 😂
Well? Is what they say about big feet true of the inverse?
Yes. Small socks.
Tell us the damming truth!
No honestly I can’t say it is. I have small hands but other than that totally average.
Get me a small man’s foot-suit, please.
Be careful what you wish for. Small feet on a man mean you’ll be sentenced to a life of small dick jokes. Which is certainly not the worst thing in the world but it isn’t great.
My message was a tenuous reference to Flight of the Conchords (New Zealand’s fourth most popular folk-comedy duo). So it’s understandable that it was misunderstood, however, I did appreciate your thoughtful response.
Here’s the song if you need a laugh: https://youtu.be/yjfSZu246zE
I get the reference!
You have different shoe sizes for men and women? WTF?
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.
size in centimeters
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 re-lace* 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.
My most recent shoe purchased was decided because the arc in the shoe perfectly marched my own. Also i do have rather wide feet and did go barefoot a lot as a kid. Funny thing im the only in group that still has arches.
I recommend re-lacing. Autocorrect changed it to ‘replace’, but changing how your shoes are laced really helps. I have a very high arch, and found that I didn’t actually need much arch support in the shoe itself, I just needed the tongue not to be pushing down on it. It means the shoes now feel tight and secure around my ankle and toe, I don’t have to go up a size to fit my arch. Much more comfortable!
Huh! That’s very interesting. I’ve never thought abou lacing having an impact on fit. I also have high arches and I’m definitely giving this a try. Thanks!
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.
Just like in the US
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.
My fellow lemming, I worked in a shoe store in the US for two years. I can tell you that yes, in fact, every shoe has an associated letter denoting width along with the number denoting length.
However, unless the width is special it may or may not be printed on the box.
I have also worked shoe retail. US household name brands makes single widths for the majority of their available shoes. If you have narrow feet try the equivalent size in the women’s model. If you have wide feet try the men’s options. The lasts are different. I’m aware you can do better than what is available in a standard retail setting. I’m generalizing.
It is more accurate, but for most people it probably makes it more work. If most [Group A] need [Item A], it gets labelled that way so they can be sectioned that way. It probably would be better, especially for more uncommon shapes, to use measurements. But most people don’t want to do that for everything, they want an easy answer so they can go home. A lot of women I know have never bothered to get their bra size professionally measured, and that’s a readily available service that saves so much literal pain.
Reminds me of mens/womens deoderant. IIRC the real difference is that one is creamier (for body hair) and the other is powdery (for shaved skin). So sometimes men might want women’s deoderant or vice versa, and the labelling CAN obfuscate that.
That would make it a foot measurement, not a shoe size.
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.
This is probably gonna blow your mind. But most shoes are worn on feet. Crazy, uh?
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.
Just so you know: Women shoes are different in both width and length*.
Probably because men often need wider shoes.
Well, that’s why you still have mens and womens sections in the shoe shop. But it definitively makes it easier e.g. to find a shoe for a woman with wide feet, just take a mens’ sneaker in the same size.
my sister’s foot size is 12. She has larger feet than me and I’m AMAB
AMAB
A Massive-Ass Bastard?
Assigned male at birth.
No, no I think the other guy is right.
That’s not very nice.
Size 3? You have peg legs.
Yarr.
Do your feet hurt after a long day of standing/walking like being at an airport or something?
Yes they do. But I don’t know if it’s any worse than a “normal-footed” human’s feet.
so do mine, but i’m a woman who’s shorter than you with size 20 billion feet
Fair point
I wonder if it’s a function of total surface area or if it’s more about the weight pressing on your ankles…
Shoes must be cheap then lol
That’s what I was going to say. Kids shoes are cheaper.
I’m 5’10" with a size 14 shoe, and it’s frustrating because they stop making half sizes above 12 which means it’s often difficult to find a good fitting shoe. I also have a 6’5" wingspan so shirts always either have too short of sleeves, or they are way too long on the torso.
I also assume that kids shoes don’t last as long, though. There is no reason to build them to last.
I can 100% attest to this. Kids shoes are cheap because they’re cheap.
Yeah that makes sense, I doubt they’re designed to handle the weight of a grown man, even a fit one.
I HATE that about having big feet, I’m on my feet all day and it doesn’t matter if I go up one or down, my feet are going to hurt, just in different ways.
Damn that sucks. You need a dedicated clothes manufacturer lol
Have you looked into shoe inserts that essentially reduce the size of the shoe interior? My friend has extremely small feet and faces a similar problem of not finding shoes that are small enough, and I think she’s had some luck with the inserts
