Dress vs Athletic shoe size

[EzraPaul]

In my experience, most men take their dress shoes somewhere between zero and one sizes smaller than their athletic shoes (nike, adidas, etc) and I thought it would be interesting to see if that is born out in the data via a poll.

I have also observed that men with wide feet will often size up in length, particularly in athletic shoes, but I am curious if men with narrow feet wear closer to the same size between athletic and dress. If you have a non-D width, please note that in the comments.

I have also noticed that cheaper dress shoes tend to be closer in size to athletic shoes and Euro designer shoes tend to run larger (further from athletic size). This might not actually be the case, but my anecdotal observations make me think there's possibly some truth to it.

Lastly, I am aware that different brands, lasts, etc have different sizing, so please toss out outliers and use only US sizing.

 

[comrade]

I wear 4 E athletic shoes and regrettably the same size in dress shoes-
some 3Es fit, but very few. To further complicate matters, I have low insteps,
which makes the few 4Es available too loose. I have several pairs of Ludwig
Reiters that fit perfectly because of a specific last. They are more than 10
years old. Naturally, the last is no longer available.

 

[Sam Hober]

Part of the measurements are the last shape, for example, I like the New Balance SL-2 last which has a wide toe box which I don't normally see that in dress shoes.

New Balance also offers a 6E which I rarely see in dress shoes.

 

[comrade]

Hitchcock specializes in wide shoes. Years ago I bought some snow boots and ankle
high mocs from them. Their dress shoe selection is meagre and low quality except for
a few models.

http://www.wideshoes.com/Default.aspx