I was trying on shoes, specifically loafers, the other day and I forced to face the reality of something I had suspected for a long time. My left foot is bigger than my right foot. I had been somewhat aware that my left foot was somewhere between 1/2 and 1 (US men’s) size longer. But when trying on the loafers, I came to the conclusion, later confirmed, that my left foot was taller, that is, from the bottom of my foot to the top. My left foot is slightly wider, also.
I have never had a broken ankle or foot, so that can’t be part of it. My hands don’t differ. My girlfriend suggests that I am a “genetic mutant freak.”
I’ve come up with a different theory. I’m right footed (this is a fact). I kick with my right foot. If I’m rooting around with my feet looking for something, it’s my right foot doing the probing. If I have to step up (or down) a large gap, I use my right foot for the first step. I’ve developed my left foot as a plant foot, and it has a larger base as a result. Or so I think. My girlfriend suggests I am “pathetically rationalizing my freakish nature.”
So is this normal? The more I think about my idea, the more I like it (Girlfriend:” The more you repeat it, the more you’ll believe it."). I find it hard to believe that I would have a genetic propensity for only one larger extremity.
No, the two halves of your body are not supposed to be exactly the same. Most people have one foot larger than the other. And yes, weight-bearing activities do, over time, thicken bones, so if you are putting most of your weight on your left foot, this would over time affect the bones. Maybe to a very tiny degree only, but still.
The part of the body in which symmetry is most studied is the face; there is lots of interesting stuff on Google.
As a former worker in a store that sells shoes (western boots, mostly), I can assure you that it’s quite normal to have one foot larger than the other. (For right-handed people, it’s usually the left foot that is larger.)
The difference is usually less than 1/2 size, so if you go to the next larger size, than the other foot is too loose. Normally it’s better to pick the size that fits the smaller foot, since leather boots stretch a bit.
But for some people, the size difference between feet is more than this, and they do have a problem. We could sometimes use our professional boot stretcher on one boot, and make it fit the customer. Otherwise they had to buy 2 pair of boots, different sizes, and wear only 1 boot from each set. (Some customers had arrangements with another person with opposite feet, who would buy the extra mis-matched pair from them. One customer had an arrangement with a friend with a prosthetic leg, where size didn’t matter as much, who bought his extra boots.)
Or the customer had to special order made-to-order boots, customized to his exact individual feet. (The cost might be comparable to buying 2 pair.) Most of the boot companies built a special wooden pattern for the customers feet, and kept that in storage, so future orders were cheaper.
t-bonham@scc.net, can you tell me how these customers found their match with opposite feet? My dad has one foot a full size bigger then the other, and it is a problem.
I hadn’t thought about the stretching idea, so thanks for the tip. I knew stretching could make boots wider so they’d fit a bigger calf, but I didn’t know stretching could also make the shoe longer.
To the OP; it’s the same with a womans’ two breasts. One breast is very often slightly larger then the other, as any bra-salesperson will tell you.
Sorry, no idea how they located each other. This was pre-internet. Probably today, there’s an internet chat group about this!
It can’t, sorry. Length is pretty much set by the sole. With boots, stretching can widen it so the foot can fit further into the pointed toe part of the boot, which might make it fit. But they haven’t actually changed the length of the boot.
But significant differences in length between your feet are much less common than differences in width, height of instep, calf size, etc. If your father really has one foot a full size longer than the other, I’m afraid you’re headed for the buy-two-pair or custom-fit options.