The Diversity of Footwear Sizing Systems

2023 article by Stuart Morgan for SATRA

Notes

Measurements

• started based on human body
• inch: width of middle of thumb across knuckle
• foot: length of male foot
• span: stretch of hand, about 9 inches
• yard: outstretched arm, shoulder to fingertips or nose to fingertips
• arguments and violence in business
• barleycorn
• The Composition of Yards and Perches statute
  • five yards and half to a perch
  • 40 perches by 4 an acre
• barleycorns from 4mm to 15mm
• Saxon foot 39 barleycorns, Welsh foot 27
• 1324 King Edward II decree under trade pressure
• still relied on barleycorn size

Modern Systems

• UK woman’s 5 = USA 7 “although some years ago this was a size 6½, with an American man’s size 12 being the equivalent to a UK man’s size 11.”
• two US systems: “common” and less popular “standard”
• Australia and New Zealand use both UK and US
• Ritz Stick
  • invented around 1913
  • patented 1916
  • very popular in 1920s
  • 1988: women’s sizing added
• Brannock Device
  • patented in 1920s
  • Brannock died in 1992 at 89
  • Salvatore Leonardi bought the company
• first described system in Britain used quarter-inch increments
• Academy of Armoury and Blazon, 1688
• written records scarce
• The Illustrated Handbook of the Foot: mentioned third-inch sizes
• Edwin Simpson in 1880

Size 13

• two theories
  • smallest shoe Brits made was 4 inches
  • 12-inch rule has 13 marks if you count zero
• unclear
• tradition

Half Sizes

• introduced in the USA in 1887
• later adopted by British companies
• required stocking many more shoes at retail
• only common in the USA after turn of century
• aggressive marketing made it widespread

Shoe Widths

• American shoe industry led
• Edwin Simpson’s last chart
  • proposed in 1880
  • adopted by the Retail Boot and Shoe Dealers' Association in 1887
• not broadly available until 1920s

Going Metric

• Continental System or Paris Points used on Continental Europe and Latin American countries
  • “grew from the metric system”
• Brazilian sizes: continental minus 2
• business profit from variations in units helped spark the French Revolution [?]
• Mondopoint in 1970s
  • “rather than successfully replacing the two older systems, Mondopoint effectively became a third system”
  • used in China, Japan, other parts of Asia
  • Japan often states length in centimeters rather than millimeters