In recent years, the acquisition of shoes of foreign brands through their websites on the Internet is gaining more and more popularity. Most often, shoes are ordered from Europe or the United States of America, so you can be sure of the quality of the purchase, as well as avoid fakes. At the same time, the price is pleasantly pleasing, because it is less than in retail stores located in shopping centers.
But when making such an online purchase, the main thing is to guess with the size, so as not to encounter an unpleasant procedure for returning goods, which entails a lot of time spent and a spoiled mood.
A table of European shoe sizes comes to the rescue, but often, guided by it, you can make a mistake.
What is the matter?
You can get the answer to this question after reading this article.
Foot and insole length
There is not a single table of European shoe sizes, but it often happens that the numbers in them are different, because such factors as fullness, foot length, and height of rise are taken into account there. It is worth noting that some branded shoe manufacturers have their own separate dimensional grids, slightly different from the pan-European ones (they can be found on the website of a particular brand).
But in any case, for the right choice of shoe size, the main role is played not by the number indicating the size, but by the length of the foot (or, as in Europeans, the insole length).
Having studied the conformity of Russian and European shoe sizes, you can easily notice that the sizes differ by about a centimeter. The main reason is that Russian manufacturers make shoes, focusing on the size of the foot (its width and length), and their European colleagues indicate in their tables the size of the insole, which is usually one or even one and a half centimeters longer than the foot.
So it turns out that the European and Russian shoe sizes differ by one cm. For example, if the owner of the foot 25 cm long will have 38 Russian shoes, then according to the European table this length corresponds to 37 sizes. Based on this, you need to order shoes of the 39th size.
Determine the length of the foot
It is best to determine its length yourself, especially since it is not so difficult.
This procedure is best done before bedtime, when the foot gains maximum volume due to fatigue and slight swelling at the end of the day.
You will need a blank sheet of paper, preferably in A4 format, a pencil or pen, and a ruler or meter from fabric.
Stand with your foot (preferably wearing a sock) on a sheet of paper and circle it, while the pencil should be at right angles to the floor.
Next, mark the extreme points along the length of the foot (heel and usually the thumb) and connect them with a line.
The length of this line corresponds to the length of your foot.
It is known that the human body is asymmetric, this also applies to the size of the feet, usually the right foot is larger than the left, but there are exceptions.
In order to accurately calculate the size of the shoe, you should do the same operation with the second foot. Choose a length that is longer.
Next, look in the table and find the value that matches your length.
Determine the insole length
The main distinguishing feature that the table of European shoe sizes owns is the insole length, which is indicated instead of the foot length.
The insole length is a guideline for choosing shoes of European manufacturers. To find out what is the size of your insole, you need to add one centimeter to the measured foot length.
Next, you need a table of European shoe sizes, look into it and find a value that corresponds to the previously measured parameters.
Foot width How to determine
European shoe size has another important indicator, in addition to the length of the foot - the width or fullness of the legs.
This information will be especially useful for owners of too narrow, wide feet or owners of high lift.
It is especially important to know the fullness of the legs for shoes made of hard material (skates or rollers, for example).
To measure it, you need to take the same footprint that was used to calculate the length, and measure out the widest part.
The table of European shoe sizes across the width of the pads differs little from the Russian one. This system has eight gradations, which are indicated by numbers from one to eight with an interval of five millimeters.
English shoe size system
As it became clear, you can’t buy shoes in online stores, focusing only on Russian shoe sizes. European and English shoe size tables are also significantly different, many inexperienced buyers who thought that these systems were the same received the wrong shoes.
The English measuring system is inch and is calculated by the length of the insole.
In the children's shoe size chart, the minimum size is considered to be the size of the legs of the newborn, which is on average four inches.
Further numbering of sizes goes every 1/3 of an inch or eight and a half centimeters.
For example, shoe size 5 will correspond to the 22nd Russian with a foot length of thirteen centimeters.
The same numbers indicate the sizes of children's shoes after six years and adult sizes of shoes.
Shoe size 5 for men's shoes or sneakers is the initial initial size corresponding to 37 Russian and having 24 centimeters in foot length.
Methods for measuring a baby foot
How to determine the size of the adult foot, it is already clear, well, but with the measurement of children's foot, the situation is, of course, more complicated. Here restlessness and misunderstanding by children that it is necessary to stand still plays a large role.
A large number of children's shoe stores are equipped with special devices for measuring foot length, they are usually colorful and disguised as a toy. Many parents are lucky in this way to find out the size of their baby’s legs.
If there is no possibility or desire to go shopping for such a purpose, then you can do the procedure for measuring the baby’s feet yourself.
There are several ways to determine the size of the feet of babies.
Cartoon
Ask the child to stand on a piece of paper and turn on his favorite cartoon, usually the children are so addicted to what is happening on the screen that they do not pay attention to what their mother is doing at this time. Outline both legs with a pen and connect the distance between the extreme points along the length of the foot.
Line on a piece of paper
If your child is not so fond of cartoons so as not to notice the event that they perform with his legs, then you can shorten this procedure in time. To do this, simply draw a straight line in the middle of the sheet of paper and ask the baby to stand on the sheet of paper so that it runs in the middle of the thumb. Next, quickly mark with dots on the border line of the foot. Measure the length of the segment that you have obtained.
Wet footprints
This method is suitable for measuring the foot length of particularly restless children. It consists in making the child stand with wet legs on a sheet of colored and thick paper. Measure the resulting wet footprint, by which you can even find out what kind of rise the child has and whether he has flat feet.
From the measurements taken, select those that are larger and round them to half a centimeter up.
Next, you need to add another half a centimeter for the summer to the foot length and a centimeter and a half for winter shoes.
Then, guided by the size chart, select which one best matches the result.
As can be seen from the table, the European sizes of shoes for children are divided into age categories.
The main advice on choosing children's shoes: better is more than less, as children grow quickly.