Shoe Size Chart

Home

Links

Shoe Size Introduction

I suppose that it is inevitable that as people have been wearing shoes for a long time the UK Shoe Sizes are based on ancient measurements - hands and barleycorns! A hand equates to four inches and is still used for measuring horses. A barleycorn is one third of an inch. Therefore 12 barleycorns make one hand. A child’s shoe size 1 is one hand and one barleycorn. Shoe Sizes go up one corn for each size - until Childs size 13 when the next size is an adult size 1.

However, it must be said that each manufacturer seems to vary slightly so please contact us if you have any queries/

UK Shoe Size	Hands	Barleycorns	Ins	cm
0	1	0	4.00	10.16
1	1	1	4.33	11.01
2	1	2	4.67	11.85
3	1	3	5.00	12.70
4	1	4	5.33	13.55
5	1	5	5.67	14.39
6	1	6	6.00	15.24
7	1	7	6.33	16.09
8	1	8	6.67	16.93
9	1	9	7.00	17.78
10	1	10	7.33	18.63
11	1	11	7.67	19.47
12	2	0	8.00	20.32
13	2	1	8.33	21.17
1	2	2	8.67	22.01
2	2	3	9.00	22.86
3	2	4	9.33	23.71
4	2	5	9.67	24.55
5	2	6	10.00	25.40
6	2	7	10.33	26.25
7	2	8	10.67	27.09
8	2	9	11.00	27.94

etc etc!!

Shoe Size Conversion

For our Mens range of Shoes this table gives an approximate conversion.

In the UK the shoe size is reckoned to be one size (ie one third of an inch) larger than the foot size.

For the most part manufacturers would suggest that a US Size 8 was equivalent to a UK size 7.5 but Sanders & Sanders experience is that their customers should choose a full size difference.

In most Continental European countries, the traditional shoe size is the length of the last, measured in Paris points. A Paris point is two-thirds of a centimetre. The last is 20 mm longer than the foot for which the shoe will fit: ie shoe size = (foot length + 20 mm) / 6.67 mm

UK Shoe Size	Hands	Barleycorns	Ins	cm	US Mens	Continental
5	2	6	10.00	25.40	6	38.1
5.5	2	6.5	10.17	25.82	6.5	38.7
6	2	7	10.33	26.25	7	39.4
6.5	2	7.5	10.50	26.67	7.5	40.0
7	2	8	10.67	27.09	8	40.6
7.5	2	8.5	10.83	27.52	8.5	41.3
8	2	9	11.00	27.94	9	41.9
8.5	2	9.5	11.17	28.36	9.5	42.5
9	2	10	11.33	28.79	10	43.2
9.5	2	10.5	11.50	29.21	10.5	43.8
10	2	11	11.67	29.63	11	44.4
10.5	2	11.5	11.83	30.06	11.5	45.1
11	3	0	12.00	30.48	12	45.7
11.5	3	0.5	12.17	30.90	12.5	46.3
12	3	1	12.33	31.33	13	47.0
12.5	3	1.5	12.50	31.75	13.5	47.6
13	3	2	12.67	32.17	14	48.2

Shoe Width

Mens Shoes in the UK assume that a "standard british foot" is an F fitting. However to accomodate variations in foot size alternative width fittings are available.

Narrow Fitting shoes - UK Fitting E (in the old days known as Fitting 5)

Slightly narrowerer than Average Fitting - UK Fitting EX or E+
This fitting is halfway between the Average F Fitting and the Narrow E Fitting

Standard - UK Fitting F (in the old days known as Fitting 6)

Slightly Wider than Average Fitting - UK Fitting FX or F+
This fitting is halfway between the Average F Fitting and the Wide G Fitting

Wide Fitting Shoes - UK Fitting G (in the old days known as Fitting 7)

Extra Wide Fitting Shoes - UK Fitting H (in the old days known as Fitting 8)

As a shoe increases in size the length and width increase. A size 8F shoe is therefore one size bigger and one size wider than a size 7F shoe. A size 7G shoe is a size wider than a size 7F - in other words the width of the shoe would roughly correspond to a size 8F.

In the table below the 11E, the 10F, the 9G and 8H would all be roughly the same width.

Shoe Size	E Fitting	F Fitting	G Fitting	H Fitting
11	X
10	Y	X
9	Z	Y	X
8		Z	Y	X
7			Z	Y
6				Z