i hate shoe shopping it never makes sense. If I need to buy a pair of womens shoes I almost always have to buy a ten or and eleven, but if I am buying a pair of mans shoes I can wear a 7 or a 7 and a half. That makes no sense because a 7 in mens is a 9 in womens. Sheesh
wow apparently I need to go to bed, mens shoes dammit
According the the women’s sock industry the “average” sized woman’s foot is a 9 and a 1/2 to 11.
I always thought that 7 and a half (my size) was average. Maybe it is, but all the socks for women sold in the stores I go to have “9 1/2 - 11” stamped on them.
I don’t think you have big feet. Sounds like they are the regular foot size of most American women. (at least based on socks :D, sorry so I’m not sure so no link).
Sounds like the shoe salesman was just being a jerk.
Eh. Sock sizes are different from shoe sizes – they’re bigger. I wear a 12 in shoes and the average-sized sock is almost always too short, depending on the style and such.
Neither of my parents have the trouble with shoes I do, but then I inherited the worst of both worlds from them – I got my mom’s wide feet and my dad’s long feet. And if I weren’t overweight, it would be nice too, but for now, it’s a pain. 
I just make do with men’s sneakers (I can actually find those in one of the local shoe stores) and dress shoes from Massey’s.
But even though I’m quite inclined to say my feet are too big, I’ve never had a salesman say anything like that to me. That’s just rude.
Mine are only a 12, 4E, I feel so wimpy now.
Another size 9.5 here, with a high instep, though not a terribly wide width. I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way I will find nice (attractive, quality) shoes is to simply disregard cost. So I have nice shoes, and I spend a disgusting amount of money on them. The pair I’m wearing right now were a bargain - about $150.
Damn shoe industry.
I think it’s fairly safe to say that this “designer’s challenge” applies to any part of a woman that they decide is “too big” for their standards.
I’m 5’0 and wear a women’s 7 1/2 - 8.
Maybe we should all unite and descend on the Evil Shoe Industry. Imagine the fear we would strike into them with our massive feet !
“OH MY GOD!!” they would cry as terror filled their hearts. “Look at those FREAKISH women! Everyone knows that NORMAL women don’t have feet bigger than an 8.” And we could kick them and poke them with our toes until they caved and made attractive shoes for us. Imagine their surprise as they realize that women with large feet like shoes that aren’t orthopaedic!
Drag shows: do MTF transgendered people find attractive but sensible shoes? Where?
I went shopping again after work yesterday, not really expecting to find anything. Found a few of those “slippers” - you know, the tiny bits of wood that are held on to your foot by a strap across your toes. Those are always a riot ! Again, great for small feet but scaled-up (and with a 5’9" woman on top) they look absolutely ridiculous.
Thanks for the suggestions, folks. I am wary to buy shoes off the internet (since I have so much trouble buying shoes IRL!!) but I’m so exasperated I may just give it a shot. And thanks for the song, Max. Fats was a lovely man. He just had bad taste in feet. If he saw mine, he would change his mind !
I’m 5’3. My feet are about size 6, 6.5, 7 lengthwise. I wear size 8, 8.5, 9 and sometimes even 9.5 because of my freakishly wide feet.
I feel ya.
Deadly Nightlight has alluded to the winning strategy. My mother takes a 10 1/2, but for anything other than dress shoes, she just buys men’s shoes. For walking shoes, hiking boots, some sandals, and so on, there really isn’t much difference, and they’re available in a wider range of sizes at the upper end of the scale. If it’s “style” you’re after, of course, you’re doomed!
A related complaint: I usually take a size 12 (I’m male), but if the shoes are cut a little small, I need a 12 1/2. But no. Once you get over a size 12, most shoes are available only in whole sizes. Why does the shoe industry assume that people with bigger feet don’t need to have their shoes fit as well?!
I (a woman, BTW) have small, but enormously wide feet. Measured by the shoe guy, they’re 6 1/2 EEE, possibly 4E. Shoes in this size do not exist. I have to wear 7 EE, but even they frequently don’t fit. It took me a month to find sneakers(!) to fit me, and they had to be special ordered. If I could wear mens shoes I would be thrilled, but my feet are too small. Lately I can’t even order from Massey’s–all of the 7EEs I have tried on have been too narrow. I can’t even wear Birkies.
In the summer I live in Tevas, which have velcro straps so I can wear a 7 and make them as wide as I can (they are at the very edge of the velcro strap now–another 1/2 inch and I couldn’t wear these either). In the fall I live in sneakers, or my hiking boots or winter boots. Thank Og I work in a place that allows casual dress.
Man, I hate shoe shopping.
My sister wears a womans 12EEE.
I think I can safely say that her feet are, indeed, too big.
Haw haw ! that’s funny. 
But I bet they’re just the right size for her.
Early Out, I agree about the men’s shoes thing - but disagree that ‘there’s not much difference.’ Mens and women’s feet are shaped differently, and we walk differently. When it comes to hiking boots, or something that is (a) carefully designed and (b) important to fit properly, I think men’s and women’s are quite different. I don’t know if I’d want to hike across the Andes in men’s boots. (For a number of reasons. One of which being that my feet are women’s feet.)
Of course, maybe these are all just lies told to me by shoe salespeople, who we know are less than trustworthy. (“You’d be better off wearing the boxes,” indeed!)
Just remembered buying winter boots a few years ago - I found a pair that I liked and the saleslady REFUSED to go get them for me from the stockroom because they were MENS. Refused ! She wanted me to get the women’s, which were narrow and ugly and stupid-looking.
I think I want to move to Samoa. Or at least go shoe-shopping there. Although, I don’t imagine they have much by way of Canada-worthy winter boots.
UPDATE: just went to Roots, which I normally avoid, and miraculously found not one but TWO pairs of sandals that are nice, look good, and are under $100 ! O happy day ! They’re not exactly what I’m looking for, and I couldn’t choose between them, so I didn’t buy them, but I’m giving the rest of the shoe manufacturers until next week to come up with something better.
Hip hip, hooray !
Now I just have to decide between black, brown, red, or white.
Just this morning, the thought popped into my head “where do crossdressers buy their dress shoes?” I’m a bit over 5’9" and agree with the observations that it’s hard to find dress shoes that don’t have a heel–I have a pair of leather boots that make me around 6’2".
My feet are around a size 10, but I can vary between a 9 1/2 and and 11, depending on brand and type. I hate that they don’t make 1/2 sizes larger that a 9 1/2, because most of the time 11’s are too big! Plus, my feet are wide, so whenever I can manage to find a nice pair of shoes that come in 10’s, they’re built for really narrow feet.
And I hate how stores always use small sizes to display shoes, because ones in my size never look as cute.
Not too sure about women’s socks, but in men’s, sizes are one higher than shoe size (e.g. sock 10 = shoe 9). So 8.5 in women’s sounds a bit closer to reality.
Hrrm I generally wear 35-45$ New Balance walking shoes 10.5 EE 
Or at least I think I do… the pair I’m wearing is 2 years old and I can’t tell.
And come ot think of it smell funny.
Kinda like monkey.
Whilst looking on the net for shoe shops that cater for the wider foot, I stumbled across a cross-dressers shoe shop. Nearly all the shoes had little heels - so I guess the tall cross-dressers just get taller.
You know, this is almost like a support group for wide/large footed women. I used to get so upset that when my sisters and I were poor uni students, my sisters could fit into the cheap narrow Brazilian shoes (which used to be all we could get in the way of cheap shoes in NZ) and I couldn’t. But thanks to this post, I don’t feel like such a freak.
Now the shoes I would pay a lot of money for would be nice, calf-high boots. I can fit the ankle boots if they have elastic on the sides, but my feet are too wide and my instep too high (and truth be known, calf too big) to fit into most boots.
I’m a 7 wide, which thankfully isn’t too hard to find, if I’m willing to spend the time to look.
Those who are having problems finding the right shoes may want to see if there’s a clearance store for one of the national shoe-chains in your area. (The kind where they get the leftovers/overstock from all of their stores in the region.) While it isn’t a sure thing, the times I have gone I have seen shoes in all kinds of sizes (some of which I didn’t know existed!) and styles. Usually the selection is the biggest in the 7 to 10 range (for women, not sure on the men’s shoes), with an average assortment of wide sizes.
Or, another alternative, alluded to by easy e: find out where the local cross-dressers get their shoes, and shop there! I’ve seen some really nice looking shoes at one of the local places here… but the smallest size they had in that style was a 10. Ah well.
<< Foo! >>
My whole family is of the wide, high-arched, larger than average feet persuasion. Myself, I wear a 9, and I am 5’9". But, as someone mentioned above, there must be a whole lot of us size niners out there, because it seems like the size 9 section is the smallest in any store, or the selection is VERY limited.
CRorex, New Balances do tend to get on the stanky side. My father swears by them, especially the black leather ones, because they are comfortable and come in the quintuple E width he needs. But, after a year of solid wearing, his shoes smell reminiscent of ASS.
My mom makes him leave them in the garage. Then the garage smells like ass. But they do make a damn comfortable wide shoe. Tradeoffs, I guess.