When It Pays To Shop

When It Pays To Shop Around

Most cheap shoe manufacturers produce shoes in various lengths but give no thought to width. They assume that if you have a slightly wider foot than normal then you will simply buy one size up.

This is bad for the feet and if you care about the health of your feet the fit should be snug and comfortable all around.

Sad to say but the cheaper imported Far Eastern shoes are the culprits here but having said that, it is perhaps worth remembering that for some strange reason it is the generally bigger footed Westerner who is more likely to have these width differences compared to the Eastern people.

When you run any kind of production line it is obvious that the fewer changes you need to make to tooling and parts the less the cost.

Since the vast majority of people have the average width foot for their length then the cheaper shoemakers will not make the necessary changes at the factory

The answer for some people is to go direct to a shoe maker and have their feet measured and recorded. These bespoke shoes are popular for City gents in smart offices to go with their Saville Row suits and new cotton shirts topped off with the old school tie or the regimental one.

Unfortunately not all of us can afford these bespoke shoes that cost many hundreds of pounds a pair but do not despair as some very fine shoemakers are making shoes in the width to fit your feet.

When looking through some shoes online there should be an indication of whether the shoes come in different width fittings and the chances are these will include most of the quality shoes in the catalogue.

Men and ladies wide fitting shoes are no longer the weird looking ones at the back of the shoe shop! The differences in width are actually very small and oddly it often comes about because very young children have spent their first walking year or two in bare feet which is much healthier than being squeezed into small shoes.