In recent years, the acquisition of footwear from 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 a purchase online, the main thing is to guess the size, so as not to face an unpleasant procedure for returning goods, which entails a lot of wasted time and spoiled mood.
The table of European shoe sizes comes to the rescue, but often, focusing on it, you can make a mistake.
What's the matter?
You can get an 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 differ, because they take into account factors such as fullness, foot length, height of its instep. It is worth noting that some branded shoe manufacturers have their own separate dimensionalnets slightly different from the pan-European ones (they can be found on the website of a specific brand).
But in any case, for the correct 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 length of the insole).
Having studied the correspondence between 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 based on the size of the foot (its width and length), while their European counterparts indicate the size of the insole in their tables, which is usually one or even one and a half centimeters longer than the foot.
So it turns out that European and Russian shoe sizes differ by one cm. For example, if the owner of a foot 25 centimeters long has Russian shoe size 38, then according to the European table, this length corresponds to size 37. Based on this, you need to order shoes in size 39.
Determining the foot length
It is best to determine its length yourself, especially since it is not so difficult.
This treatment is best done at bedtime when the foot gets the most volume due to fatigue and slight swelling at the end of the day.
You will need a blank sheet of paper, preferably A4, a pencil or pen and a ruler or cloth meter.
Stand with your foot (preferably wearing a sock) on a piece of paper and circle it with the pencil at a right angle to the floor.
Next, mark the extreme points along the length of the foot (heel and usually big toe) andconnect them with a line.
The length of this line corresponds to the length of your foot.
It is known that the human body is asymmetrical, 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 the length that is longer.
Next look at the table and find the value that matches your length.
Determine the length of the insole
The main distinguishing feature, which owns the table of European shoe sizes, is the length of the insole, which is indicated instead of the length of the foot.
The length of the insole is a guideline for choosing shoes from European manufacturers. To find out what size your insole is, 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 identify
European shoe size has another important indicator, in addition to the length of the foot - the width or fullness of the leg.
This information will be especially helpful for those with narrow, wide feet or high insteps.
It is especially important to know the fullness of the foot for shoes made of hard material (skates or roller skates, for example).
To measure it, you need to take the same footprint that was used tocalculate the length, and measure the widest part.
The table of European shoe sizes in terms of shoe width 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 has already become clear, you cannot buy shoes in online stores, focusing only on Russian shoe sizes. European and English shoe size tables also differ significantly, many inexperienced buyers who thought that these systems were the same received the wrong shoes.
The English measurement system is in inches and is calculated from the length of the insole.
In the children's shoe size chart, the minimum size is considered to be the size of a newborn's foot, which averages four inches.
Further numbering of sizes goes every 1/3 inch or eight and a half centimeters.
For example, shoe size 5 will correspond to Russian size 22 with a foot length of thirteen centimeters.
The same numbers indicate shoe sizes for children over six years old and adult shoe sizes.
Shoe size 5 for men's shoes or sneakers is the original starting size, corresponding to 37 Russian and having 24 centimeters in foot length.
Methods for measuring baby feet
How to determine the size of an adult foot is already clear, but with the measurement of a child's, the situation is, of course, more complicated. Here restlessness and children's misunderstanding of the need to stand still plays a big role.
A large number of children's shoe stores are equipped with special devices for measuring the length of the foot, they are usually colorful and disguised as a toy. Many parents are lucky to find out the size of their baby's feet in this way.
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 legs yourself.
There are several ways to determine the size of the feet of babies.
Cartoon
Ask your child to stand on a sheet of paper and turn on their favorite cartoon, usually 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 paper
If your child is not so fond of cartoons, so as not to notice the event that is performed with his legs, then you can shorten this procedure in time. To do this, simply draw a straight line in the middle of a sheet of paper and ask the baby to stand on a sheet of paper so that it runs along the middle of the thumb. Next, quickly mark with dots on the line of the border of the foot. Measure the length of the segment you have.
Wet footprints
This method is suitable for measuring the length of the foot of especially restless children. It consists in making the child stand with wet legs on a sheet of colored and thick paper. You measure the resulting wet print, by which you can even find out what kind of rise the child has and whether he has flat feet.
From the received measurements, choose those that are larger and round them up to half a centimeter up.
Next, you need to add another half a centimeter to the length of the foot for summer and a centimeter and a half for winter shoes.
Then, based on the size chart, choose which one best fits the result.
As you can see from the table, European shoe sizes for children are divided into age categories.
Top tip for kids shoes: More is better than less as babies grow fast.
