Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
Actually, sadly, I do know why we don't have standardized shoe sizes. (I know--I'm pathetic.) It's to do with lasts. Lasts are the "template" from which shoes are made; essentially, the outline of (your foot, if custom-made) a consumer's foot. There's a last for each designer; for each manufacturer; for each size. I, for example, struggle with Italian lasts, because while my feet are not wide, my heels are quite narrow, so the shoe slips off the back of my foot. Higher-end British lasts work well on my feet.
As each country, each designer, each populace all have slightly different feet that they used to create each last (every last is created from a human foot model, to start), we will never all have the same size 6-1/2, or whatever. In many cases, such as mine, this isn't a bad thing--if all shoes were conformed to Italian lasts, I'd have a tough go. And the shoe sizes certainly don't vary wildly like women's clothes do, at least--a 6-1/2 in one manufacturer will be tight on me, but another's slightly loose--not the same thing at all as me swimming in one designer's size 3 while I can't breathe in another's 6.
Ah...a shoe discussion, at long last. 
Hitch |
It all makes sense now. I have always been told that I have a "continental"
(they didn't say which continent) style feet. Long and narrow(prehensile?) shoe fitting.
I love these snippets of information.
Google "Parkinson's Last Show" where he interviews Michael Caine and Billy Connelly. Michael Caine is a font of information which my hubby calls 'useless'. Just my cup of tea.
Cheers.