Aargh! I feel your pain, wide footed shoe shoppers. I have a further gripe.
Why are the few styles available in wide fitting always so unbelievably ugly and frumpy? As far as I can work out, if you have wide feet, you have them all your life, so what is with the frumpy old lady styling? And streretyped old lady stylings at that as I can’t actually imgaine anyone I know in that age bracket liking these shoes.
UK based Dopers can see some typical examples by having a look at the wide fitting range of ladys’ shoes next time they’re in M&S.
Arrrgghhh! I have round feet and I used to love shoes until a bout of maternity made my slighty wide feet uber wide. I completely gave up shoe shopping until I found ebay. It’s a crap shoot but at least I can take advantage of other, more well heeled people’s closets.
I have found some wonderful treasures on ebay but I wish I could just make my own shoes! I have made some sandals and moccassins but I would love to really dig in and create the things I can imagine. <sigh>
At least you can BUY shoes in your size, frumpy though they may be. I’m a size 34, that’s a British size 2, or an American 3.5. Women’s sizes start at 36, or in rare cases 35. irishfella’s 4 year old neice’s feet are only 2 sizes smaller than me (UK size 13). There is exactly 1 shop I know of that stocks my size in adult women’s shoes. It’s in Northern Ireland, and I’ll be heading there next weekend to try and get shoes for my wedding. I can get all the little girl shoes and trainers I want, but no boots, smart flats or heels in my size apart from at this one shop.
I normally wear a size 36 with insoles, but it doesn’t take a genius to tell you that this is not the most comfortable solution, nor is it something that is going to work out well for my bones and joints in the long-term. I usually spend my time in slippers (kids ones) or barefoot at home, and try to spend as much time as possible sitting down when I’m wearing shoes, as even my most comfortable shoes are agonising after an hour or two standing.
Geez, irishgirl, and here I thought I had problems finding shoes because I wear anything from a US 5 to 6. My feet are wide, but nothing like as wide as they were when I was a kid. Shoe shopping was incredibly difficult because of that, then. Now I have different problems – the most obvious is that there aren’t very many shoes out there in a 5.
There is one model of sneaker I like, because somehow, my size range in sneakers has been taken over by ugly shoes for pre-teens, and it’s damn near impossible to find non-ugly shoes. I have small feet. I am not 12. I wear sneakers most of the time. AAAGH. And I just moved, so am dreading trying to find said shoes.
For the last 2 years I have been looking for some nice, affordable “Beatle Boots” in my size. I have tried on a gazillion pairs, even WIDE pairs, and none fit.
Fuck Kohl’s and their fucking 15 styles of boots, NONE which are WIDE and NONE which fit! Fuck all the fucking tiny-footed women who buy their shoes at Kohl’s so they don’t bother to stock big girl shoes (don’t worry that includes my mom too!)
On the bright side, since I have “duckfeet” like astro’s daughter (cute!) I at least have SUPERIOR balance and am not easily knocked over
Ohmigod those are soooooooo cute!! I can’t think of a single opportunity where I’d need big ol’ puddle splashing boots, but damn if they’re not so cute I want them anyway!
Are yours the fuschia and look more red IRL? I’m torn between those and the crazy ducky yellow, so very suitable for duckfeet like ours.
