I was born with feet in the 1st percentile of the population and they stayed that way even despite getting taller. Now every shoe shopping experience is awkward af.

  • Zenith@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    Do you have some sort of growth plate deformity? Do you not have growth plates in your feet? I’m disinclined to believe you’re over six feet with feet even smaller than me, in a size 4 in men’s but I’m a 5’2” woman… get size and locomotion are inherently connected, do you use walking canes or a wheelchair? I don’t see how this is possible if you’re otherwise normal sized

  • amelia@feddit.org
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    7 days ago

    As a woman, I think it’s stupid that shoes are gendered in the first place. My shoe size is in the realm that exists for both men’s and women’s shoes. So in shoe stores I can grab the same sneakers from the women’s and the men’s section. Just sort the damn shoes by size and let people pick the ones they like ffs.

    • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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      7 days ago

      The first few decades of my life I assumed that there’d been all sorts of important orthopaedic/podiatry research done into the difference between men and women’s feet, gaits etc that meant wearing sports shoes sold as “women’s” would in some way cause my feet long term harm. Nope, it was bullshit marketing all along.

      • amelia@feddit.org
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        7 days ago

        I wouldn’t be surprised if on average women’s feet were narrower than men’s, but even if that’s the case, just make narrow and wide versions of shoes and let people pick the ones that fit their feet. Surely there are men with narrow feet and women with wide feet. It just makes no sense.

          • amelia@feddit.org
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            6 days ago

            Barefoot shoes! Started wearing them 2 years ago and will never go back. I hadn’t even realized how much regular shoes crammed my toes together until I started wearing actually foot-shaped shoes. And my feet are narrow.

          • thebestaquaman@lemmy.world
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            7 days ago

            I recently learned that there’s a size rating for width. It goes from A to E, and says something about the length/width ratio of the shoe. Made my previous shoes a lot easier to buy (I also struggle to find wide enough shoes).

            • Necroscope0@lemm.ee
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              6 days ago

              Goes further than that, my feet are technically 11EEEEEE but I usually have to get a 12EE since basically no one in the world makes 6E if not custom made.

            • ulterno@programming.dev
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              6 days ago

              Well, guess I need to look for my width rating.

              Not that it matters, because the shop ppl won’t understand.
              And even if they do, it’s useless if they don’t have what I need.

    • slappypantsgo@lemm.ee
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      7 days ago

      Not just shoes, all clothes. We can come up with better terms, like tapered or straight line. Whatever would be most descriptive. It’s ridiculous.

      • thebestaquaman@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        To be fair, I don’t think it’s “ridiculous” to sort e.g. jeans into the broad categories of “typically wider or slipper hips/thighs compared to length” or t-shirts into “typically broader back vs. typically larger chest”.

        The mens/women’s categories are probably the coarsest categories that makes sense, since the average man’s and women’s body are so different in so many ways.

        • slappypantsgo@lemm.ee
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          6 days ago

          The point is that you described it exactly as it could be described without using gendered terms.

  • The Menemen!@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Why do they measure your feet as an adult? Is that common in the US? I don’t think i had my feet measured since I was 15 or so.

    Edit: I also want to applaude you for wearing Spiderman socks in this specific post!

    • frog_brawler@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Speak for yourself… I use my Brannock device each morning to check my feet and see if my junk got bigger from the chemicals.

    • warbond@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      I don’t think anybody is asking to measure his feet, but these measurement devices are practically everywhere that shoes are sold, so it’s easy to check for yourself.

    • corvett@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      It’s absolutely not common unless you’re getting custom shoes or some other 1%er activity

      • _stranger_@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Every shoe store I have ever been to, including thrift stores, had one of those foot measuring things.

        • thebestaquaman@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          I never buy clothes online, exactly because I always try them on to check the fit before buying them. I haven’t measured my feet since I was around 15. I know my foot size, so I know that shoes in the range 42-43 are a good fit, depending on the shoe model. I don’t need to measure my feet when I buy shoes to confirm that they’re still around size 42.5.

        • Redex@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          I mean, your feet typically don’t really change size after you grow up? I just buy whatever size I last bought.

          Edit: tho to be fair it’s not even always the same size because the size that’s comfortable highly depends from shoe to shoe, I always have to try on a few pairs to be sure.

  • i_dont_want_to@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    7 days ago

    So I’m not sure if you know this, but in the US the big kids sizes and the adult men’s sizes are the same. For example, a men’s 5 is the same as a big kid’s 5.

    Next time you need to use a Brannock device and you’re sized out, have them get the one for the kids.

  • dutchkimble@lemy.lol
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    7 days ago

    Do your feet hurt after a long day of standing/walking like being at an airport or something?

    • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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      7 days ago

      That’s what I was going to say. Kids shoes are cheaper.

      I’m 5’10" with a size 14 shoe, and it’s frustrating because they stop making half sizes above 12 which means it’s often difficult to find a good fitting shoe. I also have a 6’5" wingspan so shirts always either have too short of sleeves, or they are way too long on the torso.

      • vortic@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        I also assume that kids shoes don’t last as long, though. There is no reason to build them to last.

      • P00ptart@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        I HATE that about having big feet, I’m on my feet all day and it doesn’t matter if I go up one or down, my feet are going to hurt, just in different ways.

  • TexNox@feddit.uk
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    6 days ago

    How are you with stiff breezes I imagine there must be a lot of swaying?

  • OldManBOMBIN@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Wow dude, that’s crazy. Like, in a cool way.

    My great-uncle was very small when he was born - the family story is that he used to sleep in a shoe box instead of a crib until he was almost a year old.

    Probably not your shoe box, though.

  • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net
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    8 days ago

    I had a girlfriend who had the inverse of your problem — her feet were far too large for shoes aimed at women. She ended up becoming friends with a bunch of drag queens, and finding that the specialist store they got their shoes from was the best place for her

    • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net
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      8 days ago

      I have this problem, but width only, not overall size.

      I just wear men’s shoes, and even those are wicked hard to find. There isn’t really a category of shoes for my size (not big enough overall for drag shoes to be right, but far too wide for normally sized women’s shoes - I wear 6-8 [brand dependent] 4EW in men’s) and I’m not willing to spend a fortune on shoes to have cute custom ones made, so men’s shoes and sandals are my options. Boring.

    • anomnom@sh.itjust.works
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      7 days ago

      Same here, and now our seven year old is already a size 3, like OP.

      I’m 6’3 with what I thought were fairly small feet at 10.5/11. OP’s on a whole ‘nother level, but hopefully saves a lot of money on sneakers at least!