Woman’s shoes are too narrow?

[ThanksAntsThants23]

I am a woman with quite wide feet and high arches. I have never been able to buy shoes that really fit properly. I run a lot and buying running shoes has away a been difficult, I also work outdoors and have never been able to find a pair of boots that fit so I spend my entire life flaunting risk assessments and having very wet feet by wearing my running shoes to work as they are generally the only thing that I can walk in relatively comfortably.

This year I have developed a bunion and Even the widest trainers I can feasibly buy are now too narrow for one of my feet. I’m seriously beginning to consider just walking everywhere in socks.

The thing is that I know I’m not the only woman who finds woman’s shoes too narrow, I hear it from a lot of woman, especially other runners. Lost of people say they just buy men’s shoes but thats not an option if, like me you have feet smaller than a uk 6. I’m starting to get quite enraged by the lack of shoes available for wider feet.

Are standard woman’s shoes too narrow for the average woman’s foot.

YANBU -standard woman’s shoes are too narrow for the average foot

YABU - standard woman’s shoe width is fine for the average woman and you have no business expecting your weird troll feet and bunion to fit in shoes made for delicate ladies.

I have narrow feet and cannot buy any shoes from standard shops. Average shoe widths sold in the shops have got wider over the last 20 years. I could get size C in some shops back in the 1970s/80s but not anymore. Even D widths are rare now.

Why would I vote for standardising shoes for wide feet? It would be like turkeys voting for Christmas.

Of course people who fit into standard shoes will want them to stay the same. People will always want what’s best and easiest and cheapest for them.

The ideal is all shoes in a variety of sizes and widths.

Well... the thread title is the question "women's shoes are too narrow?" and therefore I naturally clicked on the thread because I wanted to answer the question with my view (I don't think they are too narrow).

However, that doesn't mean that I don't think the OP has a valid point... there is certainly an issue with shoe sizing and more options are needed.

YABU. I’m far from a delicate fairy in physique but I have narrow feet and most shoes are too wide for me. It’s particularly difficult as I really need specialist shoes due to dodgy ankles and arthritic toes, and all the models I can find are wide fitting as if they assume that if you’ve got foot problems you must have wide feet. But then, I’ve got a friend (who also isn’t a sylph) who can’t wear the vast majority of British shoe brands at all as they’re all too wide, and ends up buying hers from the US.

I agree that it’d be great to have a much greater variety of widths on offer, but it simply isn’t true to say that those of us with narrow feet are fine on the high street (or even with specialist brands) - quite the opposite in my experience.

So true

I'm sure they still do width fitting for dc so what changes

I tend to buy lace ups or Mark Jane styles or Boots but slip ons are not great on me

Hotter did narrow shoes then stopped which was frustrating

I've got average width feet and find most women's shoes fine in width, so would disagree with the OP's theory, yet as a size 9 I definitely can't claim to have tiny, delicate, glass-slippered toes unfortunately.

I've seen adverts for flats/pumps made out of stretchy fabric, that might be an option for some.

@ThanksAntsThants23 have you looked at Fitville trainers? https://thefitville.uk/ but also quite widely available on Amazon with easy returns.
I’ve got v wide feet and my 13 year old son has got huge square feet, has been struggling with trainers, and we bought him some fitville ones recently - they are brilliant and pretty cheap too. They come in a variety of widths. He’d busted out of a size 13 Nike, but the size 11 extra wide fitted great.

Also Skechers have quite a lot of wider fit.

I think the majority of women’s shoes fit most women’s feet, but they aren’t any good for wider or narrower people. And by the time you filter down to wide options, there’s hardly anything there. I live in the widest Clarks ones in only some styles, some men’s shoes/boots (I’m a 7/8 so that works for me) and German make Meindl walking boots for extra wide women’s feet. Also tried the hanweg bunion fit ones and they were also great. Cotswold outdoors were great at fitting me.

Wide feet here too, I thought I’d actually gone up in size but then they said no- your feet have just widened(!) Only runners I can wear are Brookes’ which are never ever on sale but are fab to be fair!! I dream of a pair of sketchers go walk because when I started in retail everyone told me they were the answer to all problems!!

Simply be and yours do shoes in an EE and EEE fitting. For work can’t you get small men’s or walking boots?

Altra are great. I switched to them when Brooks Ghosts changed their last to something weird, and Altras are perfect - really roomy toe box.

They're not too narrow for the average foot but they are too narrow for your feet, and mine. We are outliers. My feet are ridiculously wide; as a child when I was measured I was always off the scale.

On the high street wide fit is usually EE, very wide fit EEE.

Im an EEEEEE or 6E fitting so I have to get my shoes online. Men’s shoes are made wider but start at a size 6 and I’m a size 5 so no good.

These lovely people make shoes up to 6E , they’re a godsend https://www.widerfitshoes.co.uk/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAkeSsBhDUARIsAK3tieeBvxOxeTOSN0WkLN0h53SDHeXpm2rTiGJ4xGR09Ln66LlKugZWa-IaAuecEALw_wcB

It does feel like shoe sizes have gone a bit bonkers. It's like buying clothes at different sizes, depending on the shop, but shoe sizes you'd think would be more universal.
I appear to have gone up a size (my toes are now squashed and curled up in a 7) yet all my old shoes still fit (even the ones hardly worn and not broken in)
I've got standard feet, but a wide ankle. Wide fits are too wide, but standard boots don't always zip up.
Us awkward people obviously just need to be rich so we can get all our footwear tailor made.

Another one here with wide feet. 😌

If you are in London, the New Balance store has a foot scanning machine, where they scan your foot to recommend trainers to fit. I have wide feet with a high instep and very high arches and the trainer they recommended is perfect for my feet.

Thanks for this - these look great.

I'm tall with fairly average size 41 feet and highish instep, I find a lot of shoes too shallow rather than narrow and can't wear pull on boots as my heel is quite large with my high instep makes it difficult, my feet are certainly not fat though. Hotter do extra wide and the shoes there are not all frumpy if you look through them, they only do normal trainers though I think not running ones. Some M&S shoes are quite wide and also Next do a wider fit.

Simply Bee shoes start at 4. I am a 2-3 😂

Yes, I have 'narrow' feet but still find the toe box of shoes to be too narrow. Same for DS, he has measured a D in school shoes yet has been sizing up since moving on from toddler shoes because he can't cope with the feeling of squashed toes.

I've noticed shoes becoming wider. I would say I have average feet but have to rely solely on lace up boots and shoes now to make sure my feet don't swim around, which ends up giving me ankle pain.

I'm sorry you can't find shoes to fit you, but not everyone has wide feet.

Agree with this. Most women shoes are not a natural foot shape and seem to go to a point at the end.

I’ve never had a problem with shoes being too narrow (I don’t have narrow feet - was a G width as a child and I’m slightly overweight if that adds any context!). I always buy standard width but I’ve noticed high street shops often have wide fit options now.

I hate shoes!!! Bloody nightmare. I need a wide toe box and a narrow ish heel and arch support. The best I've found are, brooks for running, merrell for waterproof walking trainers. I now go to a local family run shoe shop that the local podiatrists recommend, for things like ankle boots. Failing that I go to pavers and try on the whole shop.

I have very wide feet; been getting shoes from Shuropody recently. My sister told me that was 'a Doris shop' which I assume means for old people but I'd rather have shoes that fit than be fussed about where they came from. I didn't find Shuropody online as good as the shop btw, but it depends what they have in stock. Good luck OP