International Shoe Size Conversion Charts

Adult, Girl's and Boy's Shoe Sizes

Conversion tables for American, Australian, British, Canadian, European, Japanese, Korean, Mexican, Russian, Ukrainian, New Zealand, Inches, Centimeters, Mondopoint shoe sizes

If your little piggies are going to market, these shoe size conversion tables can help. You can use them to convert from the shoe size used in one country or region to the shoesize used in another country or region. However, store and manufacturer practice varies widely. Having studied many published shoe size tables on the net, I would not trust any of them. The best practice I can recommend, if the company allows this, is to place orders in terms of inches, millimeters, or centimeters. You can at least measure your foot and measure the shoe and determine if you received what you ordered. Otherwise, you might encounter a compounded error of the manufacturer having a variation and the store conversion table having a variation which makes the shoe significantly different in size. I also note that tables and companies cite rules which only work for men, or women but not both. But often the tables don't indicate gender or are used for both.

Coming Soon! ShoeSizeGuy.com

Shoe sizes get their own web site!

Note: Microsoft Internet Explorer now gives a "security warning" about DHTML used on this page. This page does not install or do anything harmful. It uses Javascript to highlight rows in the conversion table. Microsoft should do a better job of determining when to issue warnings and should clean up its own house before casting stones at others.

Find out about XenCraft's presentation:
My "Shoe Size Web Page" Fetish or How Companies are Losing Money on the Internet

A Quest for Understanding is a nice video from the perspective of a husband of a shoe lover. This comes from BBC's great series on digital storytelling.

Clothing Conversion Tables
I18nGuy Home Page
Shoe charts: Version Française

The following tables demonstrate another aspect of globalizing products- shoe sizes are not measured in the same units around the world. e-Business applications need to provide users with appropriate units and be clear about which units are being referenced.

I am not responsible for any problems caused by reliance on this table. It's my best guess as to size conversions based on data found elsewhere on the web. I suggest you talk to the vendor or merchant about size conversions before ordering. Note that manufacturers vary on sizing as well. Differences from the values on this page by either plus or minus a size or half-size are not uncommon. In reviewing various tables on the web, I noted many tables with gross mistakes (easily detected by seeing values out of order). Compare the surrounding values in tables you find on-line and determine if they make logical sense, before ordering.

Using the Shoesize Convertors

To use these Shoesize convertors, first choose the adult, boys or girls convertor. Then find the row that represents the region of the world which you want to convert the size from. Let's call this the "FROM" row. Look across the "FROM" row to the size closest in value to the one you want to convert from. Now, in the same converter table, find the row with the sizes of the region that you want to convert to. Let's call this the "TO" row. Finally, by looking straight up and down in the column, that is the same column that has the size you identified in the "FROM" row, find the same column in the "TO" row. The size in this column in the "TO" row is the converted size.

For example, if you are an adult Japanese man, and know your size to be 26, and want to know your Mexican shoe size, then you would look in the adult table at the row labeled "Japan Men". Find the column with a "26". Now look at the row for "Mexico" and look across until you are in the same column as the "Japan Men 26". You should see a "6.5" as your Mexican shoe size.

Please also see the International ShoeSize Chart Notes below and the section on Other Shoe Size Web Sites.

 

On most browsers, you can use the mouse to highlight a country's row in the converter for easier reading and conversion.

You can make the tables larger or smaller by changing the text size setting of your browser. In Microsoft Internet Explorer, choose the menu items: View, Text Size

Adult Mens and Womens Shoe Size Conversion Table
M/W indicates Men's or Women's Sizes. Other systems are for either gender.
System Sizes System
Europe 35 35½ 36 37 37½ 38 38½ 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46½ 48½ Europe
Mexico           4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 9 10 11 12.5 Mexico
JapanM 21.5 22 22.5 23 23.5 24 24.5 25 25.5 26 26.5 27.5 28.5 29.5 30.5 31.5 JapanM
W 21 21.5 22 22.5 23 23.5 24 24.5 25 25.5 26 27 28 29 30 31 JapanW
U.K.M 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 11 12 13½ U.K.M
W 3 4 5 6 7 8 10½ 11½ 13 U.K.W
AustraliaM 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 11 12 13½ AustraliaM
W 4 5 6 7 8 9 10½ 11½ 12½ 14 AustraliaW
U.S. & CanadaM 4 5 6 7 8 9 10½ 11½ 12½ 14 U.S. & CanadaM
W 5 6 7 8 9 10 10.5 12 13 14 15.5 U.S. & CanadaW
Russia & Ukraine *W 33½ 34   35   36   37   38   39         Russia & UkraineW
Korea (mm.) 228 231 235 238 241 245 248 251 254 257 260 267 273 279 286 292 Korea
Inches 9 91/8 93/8 95/8 97/8 10 101/8 10¼ 10½ 10¾ 11 11¼ 11½ Inches
Centimeters 22.8 23.1 23.5 23.8 24.1 24.5 24.8 25.1 25.4 25.7 26 26.7 27.3 27.9 28.6 29.2 Centimeters
Mondopoint 228 231 235 238 241 245 248 251 254 257 260 267 273 279 286 292 Mondopoint

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Attention eBay Sellers and Buyers

Shoe sellers on eBay are now referring to these tables. Due to wide variations among shoe measurement systems, relying solely on these tables is not sufficient to guarantee everyone's happiness. I suggest sellers measure the inside of the shoe from toe to heel and list the measurement in inches and centimeters. Buyers should measure their foot from toe to heel. Buyers should request that sellers list the actual inside toe-to-heel measurement, if it is not provided. Without the actual measurements, insist on reasonable return policies. You can refer to this paragraph with http://www.i18nguy.com/l10n/shoes.html#ebay.

Shoe Size Conversion Tables: Adult, Girls, Boys.

 

Right-handed, Left-Footed

For most people, the larger foot is the opposite from the hand they write with. Try on shoes starting with your larger foot.

Girl's Shoe Sizes
Click here for Women's Shoe Sizes
Europe 26 26.5 27 27.5 28 28.5 29 30 30.5 31 31.5 32.2 33 33.5 34 35 Europe
Japan 14.5 15 15.5 16 16.5 17 17.5 18 18.5 19 19.5 20 20.5 21 21.5 22 Japan
U.K. 8 8.5 9 9.5 10 10.5 11 11.5 12 12.5 13 13.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 U.K.
U.S. & Canada 9.5 10 10.5 11 11.5 12 12.5 13 13.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 U.S. & Canada

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"Size Matters Not!" Sure... If you are Yoda. Otherwise, you need to use a conversion table.

Size matters not. Look at me, judge me by my size do you, hmm? And well you should not, for my ally is the Force and a powerful ally it is.

Boys Shoe Sizes
Click here for Men's Shoe Sizes
Europe 29 29.7 30.5 31 31.5 33 33.5 34 34.7 35 35.5 36 37 37.5 Europe
Japan 16.5 17 17.5 18 18.5 19 19.5 20 20.5 21 21.5 22 22.5 23 Japan
U.K. 11 11.5 12 12.5 13 13.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 U.K.
U.S. & Canada 11.5 12 12.5 13 13.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 U.S. & Canada

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International ShoeSize Chart Notes

Other Shoe Size Web Sites

A good site: Human Foot Morphology. Studies Japanese feet, but seems generally applicable. Also foot measurements.
When measuring feet for shoe size, measure to the longest toe. The longest is not always the big toe. I couldn't find any data on this other than Toe Size Poll.

According to Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things, shoe sizes were first standardized in 1305 by Britain's King Edward I. An inch was defined as the length of three contiguous dried barleycorns. A common children's shoe size was 13 barleycorns, hence the size 13. From Origins at Happy Woman magazine.
Also see: Shoe tips

Most business sites have poorly designed shoe size tables, that are prone to user errors and result in high return rates and a loss of repeat business. Bata had some well designed pages, but is now reorganizing its site so I can no longer point to specific links, with the exception of one great diagram in an Acrobat PDF file: Bata Comparative Shoe Size Chart.
(I am not endorsing products of any companies, or the contents of the tables. I am just noting the page is well structured and is much better than most.)

What is the Largest Shoe Size?

I don't know, but Shaq (NBA Basketball player Shaquille O'Neal) wears a 22G shoe. Here is his shoe size growth chart.
This shoe in the Philippine Shoe Capital, Marikina City is 5.5 meters/16.5 feet (French size 273).
This shoe in Hungary is size 217 (Euro system) or 145 cm. = 1.45 meters = 4.5 feet.
Zappos in the online Shoppes at Wellington Square carries a U.S. men's size 18EEEEE shoe.
Bill Clinton and Abraham Lincoln were the presidents with the biggest feet. Both wore size 13 shoes. Clinton is 13C.

Industry Notes

If you are looking for FIA (Footwear Industries of America, www.fia.org) for information on the FIA scale, it is no longer there. In August 2000, the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) resulted from the merger of the two trade associations: the American Apparel and Manufacturers Association and Footwear Industries of America.

(Clearly these guys don't understand the web. Otherwise they wouldn't have just abandoned their web address, making it hard for anyone to find their new home...)

What Does I18n Guy Wear?

The I18n Guy wears New Balance running shoes. I wear them every day, snow, sleet or rain, and have had the same pair for several years now. Actually, I am tired of them, but they refuse to die. I don't understand how New Balance stays in business. Previously I wore Converse sneaks and replaced them every 6 months since they wore out quickly. (No, New Balance doesn't give me a commission!)