what-when-how
In Depth Tutorials and Information
6
the length and width of the foot. Other vital measurements are the heel
to ball measurement and the depth of the footwear. Further aspects
involve evaluating the it at the heel, the access point at the throat of the
shoe and the influence of the overall design on it. A shoe size is a numeri-
cal indication of the fitting size of a shoe for a person. Several different
shoe-size systems are used worldwide and with some regions using dif-
ferent shoe-size systems for different types of shoes (for example, men's,
women's, children's, sport or safety shoes), they can be complicated and
confusing. The following length units are commonly used today to define
shoe-size systems:
•
Barleycorn =
1
3
inch = 8.47 mm
•
Paris point = 0.667 cm = 6.67 mm = 0.26 inch
•
Millimetre (mm) = 0.039 inch
•
Centimetre (cm) = 10 mm = 0.39 inch
There is an International Standard (
ISO 9407:1991
) of sizing and marking
that recommends a shoe-size system known as Mondopoint. It is based
on the mean foot length for which the shoe is suitable, measured in
millimetres. A Mondopoint shoe label can optionally also specify the width
of the foot, again in millimetres. A European standard (
EN 13402
) recom-
mends instead that shoes should be labelled with the interval of foot
lengths for which they are suitable, measured in centimetres.
The exact relationship between a labelled shoe size and the interval of
foot lengths for which that shoe is suitable can vary substantially between
different manufacturers. The following descriptions may only approximate
the exact sizing systems used by individual manufacturers. One source
of discrepancy occurs when a shoe manufactured according to one shoe-
size system is labelled in another system. The various sizing systems can
be seen in
Table 6.1
, denoted by country and also in inches, centimetres
and Mondopoint.
Each shoe is suitable for a small interval of foot lengths. The length of
the inner cavity of a shoe must typically be 15-20 mm longer than the
length of the foot, but this relation varies between different types of shoes.
There are three characteristic lengths to which a shoe-size system can
refer:
•
The average length of foot for which a shoe is suitable. For patients,
this measure has the advantage of being directly related to their feet.
•
The length of the inner cavity of the shoe.
•
The length of the last.
Despite these measurements and sizes, it is up to the person fitting the
shoes, whether they be a practitioner, a shoe fitter or a patient, to assess
