Shoe size chart

Measure your foot instead

The only number on this page that measures anything is the foot length in centimetres. US, UK and EU sizes are conventions, and no two manufacturers implement them identically.

Japanese and mainland Chinese sizing already is foot length: a Japanese 26 is a 26 cm foot. That is why every other column here is indexed against centimetres rather than converted between systems directly.

How to measure:

1. Stand on a sheet of paper, heel against a wall, wearing the socks you would wear with the shoe.
2. Mark the tip of your longest toe — which is not always the big toe.
3. Measure from the wall to the mark, in centimetres.
4. Do both feet, and use the larger. Most people’s feet differ by a few millimetres.
5. Measure in the late afternoon. Feet swell over the day by up to half a size, and a shoe fitted first thing in the morning will be tight by evening.

Add 0.5–1 cm for walking shoes and up to 1.5 cm for running, where the foot slides forward on impact. That allowance is why the shoe size is not simply the foot length.

The systems, and what they count

The EU step is two thirds of a centimetre and the UK/US step is about 0.85 cm, so they cannot line up. There is no EU size that is exactly a US 9.5, which is why any chart — including this one — snaps to the nearest row rather than converting exactly.

The barleycorn is a genuine medieval unit: three barleycorns to the inch, and English shoe sizes have been counted in them since the fourteenth century.

Men’s and women’s are not the same number

For the same foot, US women’s sizing runs about 1 to 1.5 sizes higher than men’s. A 25 cm foot is roughly a men’s 7 and a women’s 8.

This is what catches people out on unisex models, which are usually listed in men’s sizing. A woman who wears a women’s 8 needs a men’s 6.5–7 in a unisex trainer, and ordering an 8 gets a shoe more than a centimetre too long.

UK sizing has no such offset — a UK 5 is a UK 5 — which is why the UK column is sometimes the safest one to compare across a listing that mixes conventions.

Brands vary by up to a full size

This is the limit of every conversion chart, and it is worth stating plainly: a chart tells you what size to try, not what size to buy.

Real variation between brands is up to a full size, and within a brand between models — running, court and skate lasts differ. Italian brands run small, some American athletic brands run long, and a leather dress shoe fits differently from a knit trainer at the same stated size.

What actually helps:

• Buy from somewhere with free returns and order two sizes.
• Check the brand’s own chart in centimetres, which most publish.
• Read reviews for “runs small” and “runs large”, which is crowd-sourced calibration and more reliable than any conversion table.

Width is the other half

Length is one number and fit is two. Width is graded — the US system runs from AA to EEEE, the UK from A to H — and most shoes are only sold in one, usually a medium D for men and B for women.

A shoe that feels tight across the ball but has room at the toe is too narrow, not too short. Going up a length size to fix a width problem gives a shoe that is loose at the heel and still tight where it matters.

Why there is no clothing size chart here

Because it would be dishonest. Shoe sizes are at least anchored to a physical dimension. Clothing sizes are not: a “size 10” is not defined against any measurement, vanity sizing has moved the numbers steadily over decades, and the same nominal size varies between two garments in the same shop.

The only reliable approach for clothing is the same as the reliable approach here — measure, and compare against the specific garment’s own measurements.