More shoe (size) talk with DesignerShoes.com.

February 9, 2010 by admin
Filed under Front Page Sole Sisters, Heart & Sole

shuzsociety.com enlisted the expert advice of our friends at DesignerShoes.com about how to make sense of women’s shoe sizes. Their mission is to offer trendy, stylish and sophisticated shoes in narrow, medium, wide and extra wide, sizes 4 to 15 and widths AAA (slim) to WW (extra wide). DesignerShoes.com’s “Ask The Shoe Lady” column answers questions from women all over the world who have a hard time finding shoes that fit their wider feet. Today, they breakdown “width” and how to measure right!

Think of Shoe Volume, Not Length and Width

Most shoes are sold according to length measurements. In the USA shoes are also sold according to width measurements. But shoe fit depends upon how the volume of your foot fits into the empty volume of the inside of a shoe. When you think about it this way….. filling an empty glass with water is like filling a shoe with your foot…. it is easier to understand the importance of considering the width and thickness of your foot when you buy shoes.

Understanding shoe fit is complicated for women because the shapes and styles of our footwear have so much more variety. You may need one size and width for sneakers, and an entirely different size and width for pointy toed, high heel pumps. Sandals or flip flops because they enclose so little of your foot may be the easiest to buy. Whether you need extra wide women’s shoes or extra narrow women’s shoes, it’s a good idea to understand how shoes are made and sized in order to get a good fit.

What Women’s Shoe Width Measurements Mean

Shoe manufacturers have standardized rules for how to measure length but shoe width measurements are much more variable. There is some general agreement that a shoe increases 3/16th of an inch around the circumference of the ball of the foot for every increase in width for the same length. But different manufacturers accomplish the extra width differently, and unfortunately one can never be sure as the manufacturing processes differ even for the same style.

Here are the terms used to measure shoe widths (from the most narrow to the widest):

SS = AAAA = “extra slim” or “quad”, the narrowest size generally available. Even these widths are increasingly rare.

S = AAA = “slim” or “triple”

AA = N = “narrow” or “double A”

M = B = “medium”, the most common or “average” width for that size.

W = C or D = “wide”

WW = EE or EEE = “extra wide”

WWW = EEEE = “triple wide’. These widths are even more rare than the SS widths, although that may change as the rate of obesity increases.

Selecting By Size and Width

Even the width measurements above do not consider the thickness or girth of your foot. They only measure one dimension – an outline of your foot from one side to the other on paper, across the widest part of your foot. Be prepared to buy shoes in several sizes depending on the style you want and whether the length, width or depth of your foot, or overall shape of your foot, is more suitable for the style you want.

DesignerShoes.com had a customer not long ago who was wearing size 11M’s because that was the size she could get her foot into. But the shoes didn’t fit well, or look good. After some experimenting she discovered that her best shoe size was an 8.5WW! She needed the width but was buying the length in order to get the volume she needed in a shoe!

For more details on shoe fit adventures, read Ask The Shoe Lady.

Width chart...

Hard To Find Widths

Seasoned shoe salesmen used to favor customers with very narrow feet. The stereotype was the elegant, rich southern belle who loved to spend money on expensive shoes. Wide feet were considered “peasant” feet and were stereotyped with lower price shoes. In more recent years the stereotype has changed. Very narrow feet are seen to belong to very cranky customers who’s feet are always in pain because they lack cushioning and who try on dozens of shoes but never buy. Wider feet are seen as belonging to healthy, athletic young women who are interested in a variety of sport and comfort shoes and will soon be buying career and party shoes.

Shopping for Ladies’ Shoes by Width

DesignerShoes.com is a big believer in being the Shoe Fairy Godmother for women around the world who have a hard time finding fun, fashionable shoes that fit. So we pay a lot of attention to finding styles and brands that go beyond average sizes and widths to include great styles in longer, shorter, wider and narrower sizes. That’s the mission of DesignerShoes.com. That’s how we got started.

Here are links directly to your woman’s extra wide, WW size

5WW, 5.5WW, 6WW, 6.5WW, 7WW, 7.5WW, 8WW, 8.5WW, 9WW, 9.5WW, 10WW, 10.5WW, 11WW, 11.5WW, 12WW, 13WW, 14WW, 15WW