Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
If the shoe doesn’t fit..
Mirror investigates why footwear sizes rarely match the labels ..it’ll be because sizes vary shop to shop & shoe to shoe
IF you’re struggling to fit in to your normal shoe size and fear your feet have either shrunk or ballooned with age, you can breathe a sigh of relief.
Despite what labels say, sizes on the high street are all over the shop, causing frustration for those who don’t try before they buy. The Mirror investigated the discrepancies and discovered footwear can vary by up to three sizes depending on where you shop and what type of shoes you buy. Our reporter thought she was a typical 5, the same size for the past 20 years. But trying on pairs of flats, sandals, high heels and trainers in eight high street stores produced some surprising results. Shoes fitted from a petite 4 to 6 – a three-size difference. We started our experiment at school shoes favourite Clarks. A measuring gauge recorded our reporter as a 5 and all four types of shoes fitted in that size. But at Marks & Spencer, a size 4 and a half pair of soft brown loafers fitted like a glove, while size 5 grey trainers were a squeeze, leaving her with a larger size 6. It was a similar story at New Look, where she slipped into a pink pair of ballet pumps in a 4 but required two sizes bigger when trying on some gold sandals. The opposite happened next door at H&M. Here she could only just squeeze into some gold ballet pumps in a size 6 and a pair of brown, Grecian-style sandals were the perfect fit at size 4. In River Island, a well-fitting pair of flats could not be found as, while a size 4 was right for the left foot, it was too tight for the right, and a size 6 was required for sandals and heels. As recently as 15 years ago, foot moulds, known as lasts, were still made in Britain to a standard size. But the majority of shoe production has now moved to Asia. Nearly half of women in the UK are wearing the wrong shoe size – and a third of 2,000 people asked admitted to wearing shoes that do not fit properly, according to a survey by the College of Podiatry. Retailers also use conversion charts that give conflicting advice about European size equivalents. Matthew Fitzpatrick, consultant podiatrist from The College of Podiatry, said: “In the past there were fewer retailers selling shoes and the majority were built around the traditional-sized moulds. “But as demand for cheap fashion has increased, each company cut its own individual moulds, explaining the variation. “Women squeeze their feet into the size they think they are but this can cause problems. Bunions, corns and calluses are caused by ill-fitting shoes and claw toes can occur if footwear is too big.” A Next spokesman said: “We work to UK grading standards, whereas some retailers use the European or even American. The foot also behaves differently in different shoe styles.” M&S said: “We work hard to make sure our shoes are comfy and fit well. Our sizes are in line with UK industry standard.” And Primark said: “Our footwear sizing follows the SATRA standard.” River Island added: “All of our shoes are fitted around industry standard sizes.” H&M, New Look and Topshop did not comment.