Sizing English mens footwear:
In the same way that weights and measures have historically varied throughout the world so too has the sizing of footwear. Today mens UK shoe sizes, essentially from 5 to 16, are just one of six international measuring scales. There are others but these key ones are: Mondapoint, US/Canada, European, UK, Australia and Japan. This variation was not an issue when shoes were mainly purchased locally but now the market is truly international and the differences do cause issues when ordering shoes online:
Mondapoint:
The Mondapoint scale is useful in that it reflects the actual length of a person’s foot. So long as you know that you have a fairly regularly shaped foot, ie not excessively wide or narrow, then this is a very useful indication of your mens UK shoes sizes and so translating the size to the other scales.
Last shapes:
Now most shoe manufacturers use a number of different last shapes for different styles of footwear. Although they will of course be marketed in a particular size the fit can vary slightly from one last shape to the next. Fortunately in the UK the manufacturers do remain fairly consistent in the sizing of their last shapes as they relate to regular mens UK shoe sizes. You can therefore be fairly confident that a particular size and width fitting from one UK shoe maker will relate fairly consistently with one from another. However there will of course be exceptions. The only way to be absolutely sure when buying online and without the ability of trying the shoes on in store is to check that the last is the same as your previous purchases.
