Guide to shoe sizes and US, UK and EU equivalences

Finding the correct shoe is not always easy. Shoe sizes are not expressed the same way, mainly from one country to another. Here are some tips and a correspondence table to avoid making mistakes.

What US size corresponds to a 38? What is the equivalent of UK size 4  ? How do you know if these Nike sneakers are the right size? What is the equivalence of a shoe size in centimeters? These are the questions we ask ourselves when buying shoes online or abroad. Thanks to this guide to correspondence in centimeters, FR, US, UK, and EU sizes, you should never go wrong again.

How to know the size of your foot in centimeters?

To know the size of your foot in centimeters, you have to measure it. To do this, nothing could be simpler: use a ruler.

1. After putting on socks, position the heel at the base of the ruler and take the dimension to the end of the big toe. For even more precision, you can lay a white sheet flat at the foot of a wall and install your foot on said white sheet.
2. Once straight against the wall, we ask a third person to make a mark at the end of the big toe. The size of the foot will then correspond precisely to the dimension between the impact and the end of the sheet.

The last option is to invest in a plastic pedometer or to print a pedometer on a white sheet – many models are free with a few clicks on Google.

To know your shoe size and the correspondence in US, UK, or IT sizes, you must refer to our table of equivalences. Be careful; some brands fit “smaller” or “bigger.”

What are the correspondences of sizes for women in cm, FR, US, UK, and EU sizes?

Depending on the country, the shoe sizes change because they often don’t even use the same metric systems. In France, shoe sizes are expressed in French point, also called Paris point, where 1 point = 6.66 mm. The English point prevails in the UK, and 1 point = 25.4 mm. In the United States, the  American dot is used. Finally, in Italy, Germany, Spain, and other European countries, the Italian size is generally used, one size smaller than the French size. The following table presents the standard shoe sizes and their correspondence according to the country in order: the size of the foot in centimeters, the French size to which it corresponds, then its height in IT/EU, UK, and US.

What are the correspondences of sizes in cm, FR, US, UK, and EU sizes for men?

The following table presents the standard shoe sizes and their correspondence according to the country, in order: the size of the foot in centimeters, the French size to which it corresponds, then its IT/EU, UK, and US size.

Source: Sarenza