Shoe Size Converter

How to use Shoe Size Converter

1. Choose men’s or women’s sizing.
2. Enter the size you know.
3. Read the equivalents — then check the brand’s own chart before ordering.
4. Japanese sizes are foot length in centimetres, which is the most directly useful number.
5. Conversions round differently between tables, so a half size either way is within the noise.
6. Width is a separate dimension that conversion tables do not address.

Four scales that measure different things

UK sizes are based on barleycorns — a third of an inch — counting up from a child’s zero. US sizes use the same increment offset differently, which is why a US men’s size is roughly one more than the UK equivalent. EU sizes use Paris points, two thirds of a centimetre, and count the length of the last rather than the foot. Japanese sizing is the only sensible one: it states the foot length in centimetres. That is why EU-to-US conversions never come out as whole numbers and every table rounds differently.

Men’s and women’s scales are offset, and the offset is not universal

In US sizing a women’s size is conventionally about 1.5 larger than the men’s equivalent for the same foot, so a women’s 8.5 is roughly a men’s 7. In the UK the two scales are nearly the same number. The EU uses one scale for both. This is why unisex shoes are usually listed in men’s sizing with a conversion note, and why buying across the men’s and women’s ranges of the same brand needs care.

Measure your foot instead

The reliable approach is length in centimetres: stand on paper with your heel against a wall, mark the longest toe, measure. Do it in the evening, when feet are largest, and measure both — most people have one foot up to half a size larger, and you fit the larger one. Compare that measurement against the brand’s own size chart, which nearly every manufacturer publishes and which beats any general conversion table.

Why the same size fits differently

Shoes are built on a last, a foot-shaped form, and lasts differ enormously between brands and even between models from one brand. Running shoes are typically half a size large to allow for foot swell; dress shoes run small; Italian brands are famously narrow. Width is a separate dimension that most conversion tables ignore entirely, and a shoe of the right length in the wrong width fits badly. Read recent reviews for the specific model — they are more useful than any chart.