Alden width: Wider sole or fuller body?

[Curholm]

Hi there,

Does anyone know if Alden wide fitting shoes (E, EE and so on) are made on a wider sole than the medium (or narrower) fits in the same size?

I'm asking because I had some problems with Church's shoes a few years ago, where wider fit only means more leather on the upper part.
I had a pair of wide fitting Consul's and even though the girth of the uppers fit fine, the soles were way too narrow.

 

[bengal-stripe]

In a shoe, if you go up in width, the circumference of the last increases by approximately 5 mm (3/16”). About one third of the increase goes on the sole (left to right) the other two third are added to the volume (top to bottom). So, the width of the insole should increase by about 1/16” (1.5 mm) with every increase in width........That is the theory.

In practice, some shoe factories rationalize. So more than one width gets made over the same insole, to save on the rather expensive punches (dies) which look like big cookie cutters. So shoe factory X might well make fittings A and B over the same (narrow) sole shape, with B having an increase in volume - likewise C and D over the medium sole and E and EE over the wide sole. But than, another factory might share the insole for D and E, while the third factory has a separate insole for every width. There will never be the same insole for all widths from A to EE, but two neighbouring widths might well share the same insole.

I cannot tell you how a particular company operates. Their customer service ought to be able to give you the information. If they haven’t got the information on hand, they can just take the measurements of a particular last.

 

[Curholm]

Many thanks for clearing that out for me, Bengal.

While I understand that using the same insole for two neighboring widths will save costs, it is a tad ignorant of a good fit. The problem with wide feet on a narrow insole is that when the shoes have been worn for some time, the sides of the feet bulges over the sides, which can be very uncomfortable.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your knowledge.