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How To Measure Your Foot Size & Width

by Pablo

This post was last updated on February 21st, 2022 at 09:13 pm

It is absolutely possible to measure your feet in your home without a Brannock Device, an all-in-one tool to measure your foot size & width.
If you have access to a professional shoe fitter in a shoe store nearby, having your feet professionally measured will give you the most accurate result.
Unfortunately for the brick and mortar stores, most people are buying shoes online and do not have access to professional equipment…

Measuring your foot size and width table of content

What You Will Need to measure your shoe size & foot width at home with the best possible accuracy:

  1. Two pieces of paper, letter or A4 size will do
  2. A pen or a pencil
  3. A ruler
  4. Measuring tape or a string
  5. A friend (recommended, but not essential)

How to measure your foot size, or from your kids feet

Time to measure your feet in just 2 minutes.

In the below explainer post you will discover how easy it is to measure your feet.
To make it easy we summed up our tips :

  1. Measure your feet in the afternoon.

    It’s good to know our feet swell during the day, that’s why it’s best to measure your feet in the late afternoon

  2. Stand When Measuring (this can be skipped for babies)

    When in a wheelchair, you don’t need to stand up while taking foot measurements

  3. Wear socks

    Most shoes are worn with socks. Use appropriate socks when measuring your feet. You can leave socks behind when you plan to measure your feet for open footwear like sandals eg…

  4. Be precise

    The difference between 1 size is 6.6mm or 0.26″ so being precise is the way to go.

  5. Measure both feet

    Human beings rarely have similar feet (left or right). Take the measurement of your biggest foot to check shoe sizes.

  6. Stand on your piece of paper

    Foot size measurement for wheelchair users can be done without standing

  7. Start drawing

    Put your pen or pencil 90° on the surface you’re drawing on, and move slowly around your foot.

  8. Measure the length of your feet

    Use a ruler to take measurements of the longest part of your drawing

  9. Find your width fitting by drawing

    Use a ruler to take measurements of the wides part of your drawing, closest to the toe area

  10. Find your width fitting with measuring tape

    You can always go around the widest part of your feet with a measuring tape

  11. Determine your size in the conversion charts

    Discover +100 specialized shoe size charts here

Measuring your feet step by step

1. The perfect time to measure your foot size & width

Measure your feet in the afternoon. By the end of the day our feet develop some swelling.
If you wait until later in the day to get those feet on paper, you will reduce the risk of receiving shoes that are too tight.

2. Stand when measuring

Be sure to stand up straight when measuring your feet. When standing, your feet will carry your full weight and spread out more. Ask a friend or a relative to measure your foot size & width because you need to stand tall and look straight ahead with your weight centered over your foot.
Remember: How you stand can affect the size and shape of your feet.

3. Wear a sock

Obtain the most accurate result by measuring your feet wearing the type of socks or stockings you will be wearing in the shoe you plan to purchase. Thus no socks are needed to measure your feet if you’re buying sandals or other shoes you plan to wear barefoot.

4. Be precise

The difference in shoe sizes is about 1/8 of an inch, so your foot measurements will need to be precise and. In a conversion chart like on the shoes page, you find many sizes. Rounding up or down will decrease the accuracy of the measurement and might convert in a different size.

5. Measure the size & width of both feet

Measure both feet. Most people’s feet are slightly asymmetrical. When using the conversion size chart or buying shoes it’s best to use the measurements from the larger foot.

6. Stand on your piece of paper

Put the piece of paper on the floor and step on it. Consider choose to fix the paper with some tape.
However avoid putting paper on carpet or any other surface that will be difficult to write on.
After that step down place your foot firmly on a piece of paper and trace the outline of your foot.
Certainly remember to stand up straight with your foot on the paper.

7. Start drawing

Particularly if you have trouble touching your toes, it will be easier if you have a friend present to trace your foot for you.
Draw the outline of your foot all the way around. Holding the pencil perfectly vertically and perpendicular to the paper, trace around the perimeter of the foot as closely as possible without angling the pencil in or out. 
As noted above it’s ok to wear socks, but don’t wear shoes. In a similar way you make a drawing of your other foot.

8. Measure the length of your feet

Use the ruler or measuring tape to measure the outline from the back/central part of the heel to the end of the longest toe. (usually the big toe, but depends on the foot)
You can trace your foot a few times for more accurate results.
Accordingly, write down the measurement.

9. Find your width fitting by drawing

Using a soft tape measure or string, measure the circumference (in mm) around your foot at the widest point, usually where your toe joints meet your foot (see diagram right >). Refer to the tables below to find your correct width fitting for your shoe size.

10. Find your width fitting with measuring tape

Measure the length of the foot across the widest part of the foot (usually across the ball of the foot), with your foot flat on the floor. Write down the measurement. The importance of a correct width for your shoes? Read it here.

11. Determine your size in the conversion charts

Compare your foot measurements to the measurements on our shoe length chart for men , shoe length chart for women to find the number that corresponds to your shoe length.
Compare your foot measurements to our shoe width chart for Men and shoe width chart for women to find the letter(s) that correspond to your foot width.

How to use a brannock device explained

measure your feet size, length and with is easy to with a Brannock Device, sold on amazon.

Shoe size charts