Half Sizes Too
Half Sizes Too
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Horse Jumping
The American Shoe System: Why are shoes sized differently for men and women?
Americans start their sizing system at 1 (unlike the Europeans who begin at zero) and use a formula to arrive at sizes for men’s, women’s and children’s shoes. The heel-to-toe length of the foot (in inches) is multiplied by 3 and then a constant is subtracted from the product. This constant is different for men, women and children.
The Formula
For Men: 3 x length of foot – 22 = shoe size
For Women: 3 x length of foot – 21 (or sometimes 20.5 or 20) = shoe size
For Children: 3 x length of foot – 9.75 (or sometimes 9.67) = shoe size
Obviously, it is the constant that is responsible for the discrepancy between male and female shoe sizes. (Dare I ask why we even need a constant in the first place?). Eduardo Kausel, a professor at MIT writes in his essay “Units, Schmunits: What Do You Care?”: “...for reasons now lost to history, there exist different sizes for men, women, and children, although the latter do use the same number for any given size, whether boy or girl.¨ Looks like we may have to accept just not knowing.
There is, of course the vanity sizing argument. Women want their feet to seem smaller than they actually are, while men want big feet. But this is entirely speculative (unlike the women’s clothing industry where thanks to the undying popularity of vintage clothing we can conclusively prove that a size 7 today is the equivalent of a size 12 a few decades ago). It seems unlikely that Edwin B. Simpson, the man who first introduced a standardized shoe system to the United States, had vanity in mind. Simpson came up with the system (which we more or less still use today) after a need for uniform shoes arose during the Civil War. Left and right shoes were mass-produced for the first time during the War, and each soldier was assigned a “shoe size”. In Simpson’s system, a difference of one shoe size correlates to 1/3 of an inch (half sizes are 1/6 of an inch apart), which still holds true today. But that still doesn’t explain why women and men were assigned different constants.
The problem (like most problems regarding standard units of measure) is uniquely American. Britain and Continental Europe both elect to keep male and female shoe sizes the same. Since the UK eventually adopted Simpson’s system it seems unlikely that the discrepancy originated with Simpson himself. Some other founding father of American shoes must have made the call.
About the Author
Jane Barron works for OddShoeFinder.com,a free online website that helps people find mismatched footwear.If you are looking for diabetic shoes ,mismatched footwear ,different sized feet or information useful to polio survivors, people with diabetes foot problems, and people with foot size differences,visit oddshoefinder.com