I know it’s a weird question, but I have a hobby business selling top name brand athletic and outdoor shoes and boots on the net via eBay. I sell the heck out of women’s size 7-12 but below that size it’s nothing but crickets.
I’m assuming that on a standard bell curve there have be at least as many women with size 5 to 6 feet as women with size 11 to 12 feet, but there is almost no action in athletic shoes or outdoor boots in that size range, whereas in size 11 to 12 there is plenty.
It seems counter-intuitive that smaller women would exercise less or be less outdoorsy than larger women. It’s a mystery that baffles me. I’ve almost stopped ordering sizes smaller than 6.5 because they never sell.
I’m a woman with size 5 feet (only 4’11’’ tall so they are proportional!) and I’m very athletic and outdoorsy. I workout 6-7 days a week as well as rock climb 3-4 days a week.
I think what you are seeing is just that very very few women have feet that small. I have only met two other women in my life who have size 5 or 5 1/2 feet. (I have always been jealous of women who can share shoes with their friends…) In fact, I have trouble finding shoes in my size. Many companies don’t even manufacture shoes under size 6, and many companies doesn’t stock them even if they exist. Climbing shoes are particularly hard to find in my size.
I can only speak for myself. My usual size is 5½ although depending on the shoe it could be 5 or 6. I purchase athletic shoes really only for working out so I generally have just one or two pairs at a time.
I wouldn’t say I’m less athletic than most women, but I’m most likely less outdoorsy. I think I’ve purchased hiking boots once in my life and they didn’t see much use.
Not sure if that’s the info you’re looking for, but there it is.
I know several very outdoorsy and athletic women who have extremely small feet. They all seem to have had difficult times finding shoes, and they all have found places that stock or allow them to order online. They may be more inclined to go back to the places they have found success.
Small feet here. I bought my last pair of hiking boots in the kids department. Saved me a bunch. I actually have a hard time theses days finding shoes smaller than size 7. But I’d never buy shoes on line anyway.
Interesting question.
Like Sleeps With Butterflies, my regular shoes size is between 5 and 6. The athletic shoes I’ve been fitted for, though, are usually a 7—something I’m told is common at least for runners. So someone who would fit into a 5 for running shoes would have a usual size of 3-1/2 or so. Maybe when you’re looking at shoes that small, you’re likely to be fitted for them in person just due to the uniqueness of the need…? I don’t know.
On the other end of the spectrum, women who wear 11-12 shoes many times tend to wear athletic shoes on a more regular basis for any one of a variety of reasons.
Heavy women who want a shoe that’s comfortable with good support (I’m in this category)
Younger women - it appears that feet are getting bigger on young people in general and younger women tend to dress more casually.
These sizes overlap with men’s sizes 9-10 and if the shoe isn’t too girly, some guys have no issue buying a woman’s shoe.
Women with small feet (< size 6) many times shop for athletic shoes in the children’s department.
Older women - a lot of times, our feet get wider/bigger with age and some of us are at the point where comfort is more of a priority than high fashion (I also fall into this category).
I’m a size 9.5 and completely unathletic, but I can offer another explanation for why you sell more shoes in the larger sizes: larger sizes are harder to find in the stores.
A couple of years ago I was shopping for new shoes and asked the saleswoman if they had a particular style that was on display in my size. She said she didn’t, and told me they generally only get 1-2 pairs of anything over a size 7 (or maybe 8?) or so. This was at a major, national chain department store, not a little local shoe shop or anything. I do live in a fairly small town, but a size 7/8+ is not freakishly large so there must be plenty of women around here who find themselves with a limited selection of available shoes.
With other kinds of shoes a woman might just keep looking and find something else she likes – that’s what I do – but I’d guess that women who are really into sports, hiking, etc., care about getting shoes with particular, practical qualities and will order them online if they can’t find them locally.
I have 2 pairs of athletic sneakers, one pair of hiking boots and a couple pairs of casual sneakers (Converse). I consider myself moderately active/outdoorsy.
I also like to try shoes on in person knowing that when you have small feet and manufacturers differ greatly in sizing, it pays to try them on first. I wouldn’t by from eBay unless I was 100% confident that what I was buying was sure to fit.
I’d guess that beandog is correct in that there aren’t that many women out there with feet that small. I’ve been in shops where the smallest size they sell is a 7 - the smaller ones just don’t sell well enough to justify taking up space. Even in larger stores, about 50% of the time I’ll have to take their display model to try on since they’ll only have one pair of the size I need (usually a 6 or 6.5) and they like to put out the smaller shoes as the samples.
People in general are just getting bigger - my husband teaches 8th grade and some of the girls are already his height (5’ 11"). I don’t recall a single girl from my middle school days being anywhere near that tall.
My friend teaches horsebackriding. When we were kids, 7 was the most common size, but she says that all the teenaged girls wear at least a size 9 now. These girls are slim and athletic, many of them run track when not riding.
Interesting. Have the sizes remained consistent over the years, I wonder, or is it like clothing sizes, that have had the definition of a particular number change over time?
My feet were size 5 1/2 when I was younger, but I guess they’ve widened with time and I wear a 6 to a 6 1/2 now depending on the style. In my running shoes, though, I wear a full size larger based on the advice I got in the running store.
I think there may well have been at least one size shift in the last few years, at least in designer-level shoes. My wife (also 4’11", so her feet are proportional) used to wear a size 35 or 35.5 (mostly equivalent to 5 or 5.5 - I’m not sure why they add the 3 in front, actually) in her preferred brand of heels, but now needs to wear a 34 or 34.5.
She also has a terrible time finding shoes in her size. Recently her flip-flops broke while we were out and I went to a store to get her a pair and the smallest size I found was 5.5, but they were too large on her, so we ended up having to go home to get one of her other pairs.
I think it’s a chicken-and-egg problem - women who need shoes in those sizes go to specialty retailers who have larger selection in those sizes (or buy children’s shoes), which means those sizes don’t sell well, so general retailers stock fewer of them, and so on. Same thing as with larger bra sizes (however, if you are using children’s shoes as a bra, there may be other issues to address …)
I’m a tiny woman of 5’0" with size 6 feet. 20 years old. I work out 7 days a week on pretty much every week, and it’s such a pain in the ass finding good shoes in my size that I only ever wear my workout shoes while running (in the hopes that they’ll last longer). Maybe that’s at play too- women with small feet stretching the lifespan of their shoes to avoid the shopping part.
I wear a size 6 and I go through a lot of running shoes and wear hiking shoes to work every day.
That said, my daughter (who is about to turn 9) has the same size feet as I do. Kids shoes now go up to a men’s size 6 (about a women’s 8 or 9). I wear a kid’s 4. They are much cheaper and the toe box is wider making them more comfortable for me.
Maybe there just aren’t a lot of us who have feet that small and those who do are buying kids’ shoes?
ETA: I also buy sneakers at the Nike outlet store. They have hundreds of pairs of 6s they couldn’t sell and few other sizes.
A couple of people have mentioned that running shoes are often bought a half or whole size larger than one’s regular shoe size. Maybe you don’t sell many 5s and 6s because in addition to those being rare sizes, people with real sizes 4-5 are vanishingly rare.
I think the bolded is part of it. If you go by chats that convert foot length to sizes like this one, I should be a size 6 to 6.5. But my feet are wide, and I find a 7 more comfortable because even if it’s not 7W it’s still wider than the smaller sized shoe.
Twenty years ago my weekend/after school job was at a shoe store, and I remember selling very few shoes in the 5-6 range of any type (dress shoes, casual shoes, athletic shoes). 7 and 8 were the most popular sizes, and 9s were probably the next most common size, but the smallest sizes were infrequently needed. Twenty years of not selling shoes may have affected the quality of my recollection
I wear a 5 or 5.5 and do quite a bit of hiking. I have a very hard time finding shoes of any kind in stores (6 is usually the smallest) and have to special order or go online to find my size.
