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The sizing of footwear and footwear lasts is a complex issue that causes all manner of fit and sizing-related issues.
The Lasts footwear is made are individual to each manufacturer, and often they will have multiple lasts of different widths or depths and sometimes lengths. For example in our steprite range we have 42 different lasts for a U.K 7. This covers different widths, depths and toe shapes.
Unfortunately, U.K and EU shoe sizes don't match exactly, and the difference will vary between manufacturers, so one chart does not work for all manufacturers but will be roughly correct and will generally be within 1/2 a shoe size.
In the U.K, we generally use English shoe sizes for describing shoe sizes. As Europe opened up, European manufacturers started to sell their footwear in the U.K, and they used continental or EU sizes which also stated their conversion to UK sizing.
While there have been attempts to standardise shoe sizes with the use of the mondopoint system, which was adopted by NATO they have not really gained any traction.
However the main reason there is no standardisation is the cost of making lasts. For the UK to change fully to EU sizing, manufacturers would need to produce all-new lasts, which is an expensive undertaking and the confusion it could cause with customers due to the new sizing is also a factor causing most companies stick with the rough conversions.
| EU Size | UK Size |
| 35 | 2 |
| 36 | 3 |
| 37 | 4 |
| 38 | 5 |
| 39 | 6 |
| 40 | 6.5 |
| 41 | 7 |
| 42 | 8 |
| 43 | 9 |
| 44 | 9.5 |
| 45 | 10 |
| 46 | 11 |
| 47 | 12 |
| 48 | 13 |
Please remeber the coversion is not exact, and this is an approxomate conversion