The ultimate shoe size guide

Adult Shoe Size Guide

If you'd prefer, click the following link to jump straight to the part where you just measure your feet and find your corresponding size. If you love the who, the why and the how, keep scrolling. 

It's a fact of life that we all come in different shapes and sizes. It's this beauty and individuality that we strive to cater for at elevate your sole. However, it does sometimes come with its problems! A question that I'm regularly asked concerns shoe sizing and the apparent lack of a standard size system. From Barleycorns to Paris points, I'll briefly explain a couple of these sizing systems, but more importantly, how you can put them to use today.

A bit of jargon busting to start us off! Most shoes are built on 'lasts', which is a mould used to give the shoe its style, shape and corresponding internal volume, including length. A particular last could suit your feet perfectly, but for the person with a wider or narrower foot, it may not be suitable.

UK to EU Shoe Size Guide (and EU to UK shoe size guide)

The UK shoe sizing system dates back to the 13th Century when King Edward II brought into statute a unit of measurement called a barleycorn. Measuring 1/3 inch (8.46mm), this is used to denote the difference between shoe sizes (last length) working backwards from a UK 13 (12 inch foot measurement) i.e. if your foot measures 11.67 inch you’d be a UK 12, 11.33 inch you’d be a UK 11 and so on. This system is still widely in use today. However, most shoes available for sale in the UK are made using EU lasts.

The internal length of a shoe (last length) for shoes made for continental Europe is expressed in Paris points. These measure at 2/3cm (6.67mm) between sizes. You may have already noticed an issue here. As an example, the difference between an EU 36 and 37 is 6.67mm whereas the difference between a UK 3 and 4 is 8.46mm. No EU-UK size aligns perfectly from UK 3-15, EU 35-50.

Luckily for us, the friendly people at ISO have developed a standard conversion table (which I've condensed below). You'll also note that I have included links to the different size pages (click on your size), which explain in more detail about a particular size conversion from eu to uk shoe size.

How to measure your feet

It’s easy peasy, trust me. I’m going to give you 4 simple steps to measure the length of your foot within the comfort of your own home. So, let’s get started; what do you need?

Tape Measure, Heavy Book. Honestly, that’s it!

  • Remove your shoes & socks and carefully position your foot so that your heel is just touching the wall;
  • Place your heavy book parallel to the wall and gently slide it up to your longest toe (it may be best to get a little help here);
  • Move your foot away, taking care not to move the book (or the wall!);
  • Use your tape measure (making sure to push it gently into the wall so the little metal hook (or tang) is pushed in) to measure the distance in mm between the wall and book;
  • Make a note of your measurement;
  • Go ahead and measure the other foot too, just in case they’re different.
  • Voila, you have your foot measurement! 

    Make sure that you take your time to measure both feet, as they’re almost always different sizes. Compare your measurements to our comprehensive UK to EU size guide above and you’ll have a very good starting point for purchasing the correct size footwear. It’s important to use the largest foot measurement when considering purchasing footwear i.e. if one foot measurement is a size 6 and your other is a 7, always opt for the larger size.

    Heel against the wall
    Heavy book to measure feet Using tape to measure between heavy book and wall

    The individual product pages will offer the sizes stated by the manufacturer and we will regularly update these pages with our own sizing suggestions.

    What is my UK & EU shoe size?

    UK Foot Length (mm) EU
    220 35
    3 220.13
    226.6 36
    4 228.6
    233.3 37
    5 237.06
    240 38
    6 245.53
    246.6 39
    6.5 249.76
    253.3 40
    7 254
    260 41
    8 262.46
    266.6 42
    9 270.93
    273.3 43
    10 279.4
    280 44
    10.5 283.63
    286.6 45
    11 287.86
    293.3 46
    12 296.3
    300 47