Recently, a very knowledgeable shoe size guy explained to me
that footwear is measured differently in different parts of the world. I was
told that a size 12 in Canada would be gauged as 28.5 in Japan and that’s a
size 9 in Mexico!
This expert clarified that despite persistent efforts by cobblers across the globe, there is no one universally adopted system for
measuring shoe sizes! He advises anyone ordering custom made shoes to measure their feet in centimeters and millimeters and send that value to overseas
craftsmen. That metric system, he maintains, is recognized almost everywhere
except the United States.
And that got me thinking, why do we have shoe sizes at all? What do those pesky
numbers mean anyway? I wear a size 10½ shoe… Does that mean my feet are 10.5
inches in length? No.
It seems that English peasants had the same problem in 1305
AD. Every single cobbler in the town of London used his own measuring stick – and a thousand different ‘shoe sticks’ made any
standardization impossible.
Do you remember the
tyrannical English King in Mel Gibson's classic movie ‘Braveheart’? Patrick MaGoohan did a
terrific job of playing evil Edward I, who was actually one of England’s
best kings. Perhaps you recall the scene where the old King murders the
Prince’s gay lover by tossing him out the window? Well that young Prince matured into one of the worst Kings England has ever suffered.
Edward II was a real dandy, a clothes
horse, a sodomite, and the first reformer of shoe sticks the world has ever
known. The ‘twink’ was eventually murdered by several of his most unhappy subjects (who rear ended him
with a red hot furnace poker). But sometimes even the most terrible monarchs
can do great things, and the best thing he did was standardize the
nation’s wieghts and measures - he straightened out all those shoe sticks.
King Edward II took three grains of barley and positioned
them beside one another in a line. He called that distance an inch. ‘It is ordained that three grains of barley,
dry and round make an inch, twelve inches make a foot…’ British cobblers
adopted the measure and began manufacturing their footwear accordingly. A
child's shoe measuring thirteen barleycorns became commonly known as, and
requested by, size 13.
Unlike leather shoes which need time to ‘break in’ and will
sometimes shrink or expand with age, Holey Soles should feel comfortable the moment you
first put them on. Here’s a handy link to their measuring system, and the size guide available on their website.
Recently, a very knowledgeable shoe size guy explained to me
that footwear is measured differently in different parts of the world. I was
told that a size 12 in Canada would be gauged as 28.5 in Japan and that’s a
size 9 in Mexico!
Do you remember the
tyrannical English King in Mel Gibson's classic movie ‘Braveheart’? Patrick MaGoohan did a
terrific job of playing evil Edward I, who was actually one of 
