# Are women with feet  size 6 and smaller less athletic or outdoorsy than larger women?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-women-with-feet-size-6-and-smaller-less-athletic-or-outdoorsy-than-larger-women/636755>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 5, 2012, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-women-with-feet-size-6-and-smaller-less-athletic-or-outdoorsy-than-larger-women/636755 "2012-10-05T00:27:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-women-with-feet-size-6-and-smaller-less-athletic-or-outdoorsy-than-larger-women/636755/21 "2012-10-06T03:03:09Z")

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> [@acaos](#):
>
> 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.

The “34” is European sizing. [See here](http://continentalimport.com/sizechart.html)

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**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-women-with-feet-size-6-and-smaller-less-athletic-or-outdoorsy-than-larger-women/636755/22 "2012-10-06T03:25:22Z")

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> [@beandog](#):
>
> 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.

This. I’m a size 3. In Spain, it’s less available than the sizes above and depending on what I’m buying it may be from the kid’s section (for example, my last pair of boots - the patent leather shoes I got from the same store at the same time were from the ladies’); in the US? In the US, I _start_ by looking in the child’s section.

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**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2012, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-women-with-feet-size-6-and-smaller-less-athletic-or-outdoorsy-than-larger-women/636755/23 "2012-10-06T05:10:06Z")

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Yeah, **astro** , basically you assumed a bell curve of distribution where there is none (or one that’s further over to larger sizes than you guessed). I’m a 7w, though can wear a 7.5 regular and usually do, since hardly anyone makes wide width shoes other than Payless (which is stupid, because a hell of a lot of women have wide width feet!).

> [@perfectparanoia](#):
>
> I wear a size 6 and I go through a lot of running shoes and wear hiking shoes to work every day.
> 
> Snip
> 
> 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.

Hell yeah. I love scoping out the kids’ shoes for awesome deals (especially when on clearance). Like I said, I wear a women’s 7w and kids’ size 5s generally fit great; the toe box is where my feet need the extra width, so that’s awesome.

(I actually wore one of my pairs of girls’ shoes today. Black low-top All-Stars that have magenta laces and a cut-out star on each side that displays glittery magenta. Found 'em clearanced out for $2.74!)

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