American and British shoe width sizes comparison

[Tsar]

There is a lot of controversial information on the web on how US width (A, B, C, D (standard), E, EE) are related to the UK (C, D, E, F (standard), G, H).

Can somebody please explain, how these two shoe width scales are related to each other? I presume that D width in the US scale should correspond with F width in UK scale. However, for instance, according to the Herring Shoes, British F (standard) stands for American EE (extra wide) - https://www.herringshoes.co.uk/faq.php). And if you compare the width sizing on American and British version of the Brannock Devices, then you can see that American E (wide) corresponds with British F (standard).

I of course understand that each manufacturer marks the width of the shoes according to his own wisdom (i.e. Crockett and Jones consider E to be the "standard" width instead of F). However, I believe there should be some "general rule". I'll be deeply grateful if somebody can explain it.

My question is inspired by one problem that I commonly take I mainly wear dress shoes that are made in accordance with a British sizing system. However, I frequently have problems with those shoes in a standard (F) width, since they often cause really severe blisters on my foot balls. I presume that it is because I need to buy a dress shoes in a wider width (although I've always used to wear casual shoes in a standard width and never had any similar problems).

In order to solve this problem I'm thinking about buying a Brannock device (I live outside the United States so it's not easy to measure my foot with it in my homecountry) with the UK scale in order to determine the correct width for the British shoes. However, I would rather buy an original US scaled Brannock device, since it is much more common and established measurement tool, while there is literally no singe review of a British version in the web, and then convert my US measurement to the British ones.

However, to do this I want to be sure that I'll be able to properly correlate widths from this two shoe size systems.

 

[wdrenth]

I suppose the fundamental problem is that shoe sizes are not expressed in SI units. Whilst there is an 'official' definition of UK shoe sizes (this and that many barleycorns, if I am not mistaken) and similarly for US sizes I don't think there is a golden standard. In some systems, the shoe size is related to the size of the feet, but in some to the length of the last. In fact, with all clothing there is variation between countries (a small size in Germany, for example, is larger than a small size in Spain), and even within brands. In the end it is about selling consumer goods in a certain market -- so the goods are probably tuned to average of that market: a 'normal' size/width in Flatfootland will thus differ from the 'normal' size/width in Narrowfeetania. Another variable in the equation is your feet: these will also be different during the day, and maybe in different stages in your life. Losing or gaining weight can cause impact on your shoe sizes for example. And maybe your taste and preference changes (for myself: now I prefer to 'feel' the shoe I am wearing, so a little snug is ok -- in the past I preferred shoes that fitted comfortable)

I also suppose blisters can be caused by many things, including shoes that are too tight, or too wide. Ultimately, fitting a pair of shoes (or trousers, a shirt, etc) physically in a shop, where the staff can help and advice in finding the right fit, still works best.

 

[Count de Monet]

There appears to be little rhyme or reason. As to length, the rule of thumb seems to be subtract 1.0 from your US size to get a UK equivalent. That works for me when buying Carmina or Bonafe, who both use UK sizing.

As to width, which is actually girth, about half of the Northampton brands popular on SF seem to use E for their standard width (eg C&J) and the other half use F. Odd.

To further complicate things, some Northampton makers seem to have a “cone” that is more tolerant of high insteps than US makers. I have a high instep and wear a 10.5E in most “standard” AE and Alden lasts. But I only have to drop half a size and can use standard width for the C&J 325 last, ie a UK 10.0E. Which is great for me since none of the Northampton makers offer the number of widths AE and Alden offer.

I doubt this helps much. But even if the US and UK sizing were identical, it still comes down to maker and lasts. You just have to try them on or look for generous return policies.