Hi all,

I didn’t know where to put that post so I hope it’s fine here.

Quick story about my life. 31yo male, hobby joggers. I went from 42.5 to 44.5EU size for my shoes in 8 months.

I always thought I had wider feet. All shoes hurt my feet etc. And indeed when measuring, I had wider foot than normal for my length. In January this year I quitted my job for another one. I have a 9 months non competition period so I ran more miles. Got injured. Stayed at home with the cat, barefoot, all day long.

Fast forward to 2/3 months later, my toes aren’t crunched anymore, feet feel stronger, no more pain under the arch. But shoes feel tight. Ok lets buy half size up/ full size up. Good. Still in non compete so pretty much always barefoot at home with the cat, shoes only to run or go shopping. Shoes are too small again, Ive eaten the thumb again. Fast forward to today, I wear 44.5 in my shoes. So I went from 42.5 to 44.5 in little than a year, being barefoot at home. Feet are stronger, look healthier (no more toe over the other, crunched up). My toes are spreading a bit and no more pain under the foot.

So it got me thinking, people complaining about shoes not wide enough. Because shoes are stiff when you try them, they need to be tight so you don’t have heel slip. It creates a bias to buy too small. Then at 20yo you just keep buying the same size again and again. A girl to wear heels will have to have mega tight fitting shoes. Boys wearing loafers (probably to save up time on lacing because lets be real that’s not good looking :P ) also have to wear tight shoes or they slip.

Maybe, you are just sizing wrong and your foot isn’t in its normal shape and should be longer. You can’t do much restriction about the width, but you can with the length thanks to the toes crunching with each other.

To conclude, if you think you have wide feet, look at your toes, if they are all over the place, with bunions, no space etc. Try my theory. Buy a pair of barefoot shoes 1 or 2 sizes bigger (fleeters are nice casual shoes for example) and only wear that for a few months, and be barefoot at home, and see if your feet don’t « grow » a bit. It will give you a good excuse to buy new shoes as the old ones wont fit anymore !