For years, I wore a 6 1/2 D (or a 36 wide Birkenstock). It was very difficult to find shoes that fit — fortunately, I have no interest in fashionable shoes.

Two pregnancies and quite a few years later, and my feet have grown a bit. My old 6 1/2 D’s are a bit tight; in new shoes I’m a 7 EE. I’m lucky that my town has an old-fashioned shoe store with clerks who know how to fit shoes, and they carry a wide range of sizes. It is still difficult to find shoes that fit, but I can usually find something appropriate.

I believe all my size change is due to me, and not sizing evolution. I have always bought good shoes*, and try to buy from stores that have fitters. So my views are of only a tiny part of the shoe industry. Things could be very different in the mass market shoe business.

* My father, who wore 7 1/2 EEE shoes, taught me to always buy well-fitting shoes, despite the cost. My mom, who was full-figured, taught me to always buy well fitting bras, again despite the cost — and she taught me how to judge good fit. Because of this advice, I am much perkier than my age-mates and have no foot problems.

One pair of flats was fully a size too small (that brand I think runs that way); one was too narrow to get on my foot, but also too long; and one sorta fit, but was too loose in the heel.
The point toed heels actually fit pretty well in the foot, but the instep strap was so loose I could fit four fingers under it.
The sandals were so narrow they distorted my foot to even try them on, the sneakers rattled around on my feet, and the sporty mary janes as well.

Obviously part of this is that 13s are not my size – I suspect I am a 12.5 these days which would be great if there was any such thing. But not one of these 7 pairs of shoes came close to being the same size as each other much less the right size for me.

And it has seemed to have gotten more prevalent this last year. For larger feet there really wasn’t much available until the last 6 or 7 years and that’s changing now. I had one shop tell me that the standard women’s lasts only go up to a 10.5 and so anything above that has been developed piecemeal from mens lasts and individual circumstance. No consistent grading or development.

I feel most of you guy’s frustration; just a decade ago, I could still wear sizes up to 5.5. Now, a size 5 is too big most of the time. And as a shoe fanatic, that bothers me twice as much as perhaps those of you who see shoes in a functional manner.

Maybe this little tip will help someone: What I do if a shoe that I buy fits just a little big is to add a comfort insole designed for the ball of the fit, and that usually helps keep my feet inside the shoes.

Now if I buy an 11 I more or less walk right out of it and can fit into alot of size 10’s.

Also I think width is becoming vanity sized. My grandfather’s old shoe store foot measure from the 1960’s says my foot is a medium. Yet if I buy an off-the-rack medium shoe it’s ridiculously wide on my foot and ludicrous for my narrow heel.

I also phoned a couple of common catalog companies that ALWAYS had size 5 and 5 1/2 (I am somewhere in-between) and asked why they had stopped offering size 5, 5 1/2 and 6 shoes. They told me that it was because it wasn’t worth it financially to produce these shoes in mass quantities. So it seems like a factory issue. To keep prices down shoe orders from the store to the manufacturer are place in even higher quantities and small and large shoes sizes are not financially feasible to produce. It is not as if small and large feet went extinct, it is a money and mass box store type issue.

The only recourse is to complain and petition your favorite companies to add back these sizes (even at higher prices).