If you love shoes like I do, you’ve probably purchased footwear online more on than a few occasions. It makes a lot of sense, since the prices are usually significantly lower than what you’d pay at a brick-and-mortar shop, the selection of styles and brands to choose from is almost limitless, and you get to do your shopping from the comfort of your own home!
Unfortunately, despite all the advantages online shopping provides, there is also one major downside when it comes to shoes – you can’t try them on before placing an order, as you would at your local mall. This seemingly minor detail can result in a lot of frustration, time wasted, and turn a good deal into a sour one.
A Personal Story
Let me illustrate by sharing my first online shoe shopping experience. It was mid-August, and a friend of mine was getting married at the beginning of September. I had already chosen my outfit but still didn’t have the right shoes to go with it. Credit card in hand, I decided to browse around a few web stores and see if I could find what I was looking for. A couple of hours later I was finally looking at a pair of Gucci shoes that complemented my look for the wedding. The price was great, and they had my size in stock. I quickly placed my order before someone else could snatch them, and waited impatiently for the package to arrive in the mail, checking the tracking number status every day. Finally, in what seemed like eternity but was really only a week, I was holding the box in my hands. I tore the packaging off, pulled my new shoes out and admired them for a minute before slipping my right foot in … only to find out, to my huge disappointment, that this particular pair was just too small! But how is this possible?! After all, I specifically ordered my size!
Not only was my day ruined, but now I had to ship the order back at my own expense (free return shipping was not as common back then), and try to get a larger size. Not only was this a hassle and making the shoes more expensive, there was also no guarantee that the new size would be a good fit, or even that it was in stock. Never mind that I had to wait again for God knows how long before I could actually wear my new shoes. And forget about wearing them at the wedding, a good old-fashioned visit to the mall was in the cards.
As faith would have it, the seller didn’t have my proper size in stock, so I had to choose a different brand that was a little cheaper but not quite as exciting. With the lesson I had just learned still fresh in my mind, however, I took a minute to look up a shoe size chart on the web to make sure that I’d be getting the sizing right this time around. Unfortunately for me, the chart I had looked up must have been incorrect, or maybe my brand of choice had non-standard shoe sizing (which I later discovered was more common than not), or both.
When my second order finally arrived, the shoes turned out too large this time by probably a whole size. I decided that even though I could potentially wear them, it was best to return this pair as well, because it felt and looked like I was wearing boats on my feet. Luckily, the third time was a charm, and a bit less than a month after my first order, I finally had something I could wear. It wasn’t really what I wanted initially, and it ended up costing me more than I would have spent at the mall for the same shoes, but at least I had them and the whole ordeal was over.
I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s had a similar experience at least once or twice in their lives. Mine sure taught me a good lesson and I resolved to do my best to never find myself in the same situation again. So I came up with a short list of things to do to minimize the chances of getting the wrong size, and since it has served me well I’d like to share with the hope it will be helpful to others as well.
Measuring Your Foot Size
The first important thing to do before purchasing your next pair of shoes online is to measure the size of your feet (yes, both of them). You only need to do this once and it only take a few minutes, and it’s well worth it, trust me on that one. There are plenty of ways to go about it. If you happen to own or have access to a Brannock device, then by all means go ahead and use it. It’s by far the simplest and most accurate way to measure the length of your feet. Alternatively, for the majority of us who don’t own one, there is still a quick and easy way to do it by only using everyday household items like a piece of paper, a pencil, and a ruler. Here is a good guide on how to do it properly.
Ask the Seller for the Exact Length
Asking the seller for the exact insole length is optional, since it’s not always possible to contact someone who can provide this information, but it’s definitively the most fail-safe way to ensure that you’ll get the correct fit. Simply look around their website, usually you’ll find contact information on the ‘Contact Us’ page. If they provide a phone number, try calling as you’re more likely to get a response, and it will be a lot quicker too. Otherwise, find an email address and send them a quick message describing what you’re looking for. It would also be helpful to ask for the insole lengths of one size larger and smaller than the one you’re looking for. Wait at least a few days for a reply, especially if you’re buying from a big company, since often they’re not the quickest to respond.
If you were successful in obtaining the sizing info from the seller, the next step is to simply compare that number with the measurement of your bigger foot. If the foot’s length is fairly close (within 0.5 centimeters), but still less than the shoe’s insole length, you’ve got a good fit. If it’s less than the insole length, but by more than 0.5 centimeters, you’ll probably need to go down half a size to a full size, depending on the magnitude of the difference. If, on the other side, your foot’s length is greater than the shoes’ length, you’ll need to go up by half to a full size, again depending on the magnitude of the difference. Usually half a size can be anywhere between 0.3 and 0.5 centimeters.
Use the Correct Shoe Size and Conversion Chart
Finding a good and accurate sizing and conversion information has been quite problematic in my experience. If you do a cursory search on the internet for ‘shoe size chart’ or something similar, you’ll probably get thousands of results. However, if you take a more detailed look you’ll discover that pretty much no two charts agree with each other! How do you determine which chart contains the correct sizing information?
To add insult to injury, different shoe brands tend to vary, sometimes quite significantly, from both each other and the international standard. For example, you can take a size 8 from two brands, and measure the actual insole lengths to be 1.5 centimeter or more apart!
To solve these problems, it’s always best to use an official sizing chart specific to the brand you’re looking to buy. Want to get new Adidas shoes? Then look for an Adidas size chart, not just a generic one. Only if one is not available should you fall back to consulting an accurate generic size chart. And if you do, I’d highly recommend buying from a seller that offers free return shipping.
It’s not always been easy or even possible to find brand-specific charts in the past, sometimes taking hours of digging through forums and websites to find bits and pieces of information of questionable reliability. However, recently I discovered an incredibly helpful website that not only contains accurate generic size charts (based on the standard Brannock device), but also includes brand-specific size charts for women, men, kids, and toddlers for literally hundreds of brands! The site enables people to lookup their shoe sizing information in under a minute. What’s more, they also provide conversion information for a number of countries (US, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, China, Japan, and Korea), so that sizes can be converted from one region to another if necessary.
Enjoy Wearing Your New Shoes!
Well, that goes without saying, but hopefully this little guide will help you enjoy your new shoes more by making the shopping experience quick and pleasant, and by saving you a lot of time and money. H
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