I wear a women’s size ten (she says optimistically, when in reality the tens are often too short and they’re the largest size that is commonly stocked for women). That translates into a men’s eight or eight and a half, which often fits very nicely. My winter hikers this year were from the men’s section.
I don’t usually wear men’s shoes; just boots.
Never.
I doubt I could ever find any woman’s shoe that fit me. I wear a men’s 11, double-wide, which means it’s something of a challenge to find any shoe that fits tolerably.
If the shoe looked masculine or unisex, I suppose I’d have no problems wearing something designated as a woman’s shoe… but I certainly have no interest in wearing anything that looked feminine.
I generally can’t wear men’s shoes because I have narrow feet. The length is fine, since I’m a women’s size 11.
I remember a sales person once telling me that I couldn’t wear men’s shoes because women and men walked differently and that it could cause foot problems. I have NO idea if this is valid or just a goofy thing to say.
If you are a guy but happen to be short and have relatively big calves, or happen to have a narrow heel, try on some women’s alpine ski boots. Relative to men’s boots of the same length and width, women’s tend to have lower cuffs and narrower heels.
Conversely, if you are a tall women with long lower legs, or a physically powerful skier, try on some men’s boots but expect to have to pad out the liner at the heel, try a heel lift, and take care to not get too stiff a cuff. The taller cuff will give you greater leverage.
If going with an opposite sex boot, be sure that you can adjust your cant (the cuff’s forward lean), for men’s and women’s centers of gravity are not the same.
Here’s a good illustrated article on this sort of thing. http://www.jeanniethoren.com/theory.html
I think the take-home message is to think about your actual needs rather than bother about fashion.
All my work shoes, tennis shoes and boots are mens. Much easier to find a mens 10 than a woman’s 12W, for sure.
It’s horseshit.
The majority of my shoes are men’s. I tend to like the men’s styles in things like athletic shoes and hiking boots (which is mostly what I wear). My “dress” shoes are women’s but very masculine style (no heels or sandals). I wear a men’s 9 or a women’s 10 or 10.5 depending on the shoe. I don’t think my feet are particularly wide or narrow–they’re pretty standard.
So far, never. Of all the female-intended garments, women’s shoes are what I covet the least. They’re uncomfortable and many of them look quite silly on women and could only look equally silly, at best, on me.
Having said all that, I’ve been thinking I might need a pair of sandals and I’ve never found guys’ sandals that I liked, so… maybe…
I regularly buy womens athletic shoes because it’s hard for me to buy mens, I’m about a 6 1/2 in mens and the smallest most places carry is a 7. The last dress shoes I bought were boys.
I have a pair of Vans that I recently bought, a womens 8.5 (euro 39) that are exactly identical to the mens except for the size listing and they were a bit cheaper.
Never. I wear a 7.5-8 in women’s sizes, which would be, what, a 5.5-6 in men’s? What size are you, monstro?
My running shoes, snow boots, & five finger shoes are men’s shoes.
I have big feet. If I’m looking for purely functional shoes, I’ll look in both departments & go with whatever fits best - and since a lot of manufacturers barely make women’s shoes my size, that will often end up being the men’s shoes.
My day-to-day shoes are all women’s shoes.
The only time I have done it is with unisex shoes, Crocs and Birkenstocks. I too have a couple pair that I got from my son when he passed me up, but one of them was planned. I bought him women’s Lands End hiking boots which fit him fine. And now they’re in my closet.
One tip I heard somewhere, which I have never had to deploy, is for women with very large feet to seek out where drag queens buy their shoes. Where that is, I don’t know, but it seemed like the perfect solution!
Supposedly, there is at least one such specialty shop in/near Wrigleyville in Chicago.
These days? Probably a bunch of suppliers on line.
There’s one in the Bay Areatoo. They go up to size 16.
Only my Converse All Stars are men’s at the moment. I have in the past had other shoes from the boys/mens departments. Usually they were shoes that were pretty much identical to womens, but cheaper because of being in the boys department.
I have a pair of Converse, and I recall that they were marked on the box in both men’s and women’s sizes.
I’ve often thought about this for myself, but I’ve never run in to a drag queen that I could ask.
I’ve worn boys’ hiking boots (size 4 or 4-1/2) as work shoes, but not recently. My shoe size has dramatically changed in the last year or so. I was a 6M for a very long time. Now I’m something like a 7W in womens, except that now a lot of wide widths no longer fit because of my bunion and a couple of crossed hammertoes.
If a boys 4 or 4-1/2 is equal to a women’s size 6, a women’s size 7 would equal a men’s 5? I’ve never seen any size 5s in mens. They exist, don’t they?