- Try on shoes later in the day or right after doing a lot walking so your feet will have swelled.
- Have both feet measured every time you about to try on shoes, while standing. The size and shape of your feet change from year to year. Your feet tend to lengthen and widen as you age. There are 26 bones in each foot, the feet's tendons and ligaments lose some of their elasticity and don't hold the bones and joints together as tidily.
- Most people's feet are not exactly the same, the length and/or width could be completely different. It is best to buy shoes fitted to your longer and wider foot. In extreme cases the differences is so great that a person needs two different sizes. Sorry, I don't know of any brands or shoe stores that sell individual sizes & widths shoes. At my SAS Shoes store in Victoria, we offer 50% off the second pair of the same shoes if someone is extremely hard to fit due to a foot size discrepancy.
- Bring different socks, support hose, compression socks, nylons that you usually wear while trying on the shoes. Different thickness can change the fit of the shoes, finding a shoe that can fit thick socks in the winter and nylon or thin socks in the summer can be very challenging especially with slip-on style shoes.
- Bring your orthotics, special insoles, toe spacers, lifts, braces, etc. Any special device that you need to wear in your shoes can change the fit of a shoe.
- There should be about 3/8 or 1/2-inch space from the end of your longest toe to the end of the shoe. There should be enough depth in the toe box so your feet aren't swished downwards, having some wiggle rooms is nice.
- Shoes should fit comfortably across the ball of the foot and fit snug around the heel so that there is no slipping while walking. Shoes should feel great when you put them on, don't buy them thinking you will "wear them in."
- If you have wide or narrow feet, try on styles that come in those types of widths. Keep in mind that most shoe stores don't carry a variety of widths and not all brands make different widths. A lot of times people go into shoe stores saying "I would like to try this one, this one, this one, this one, this one and this one." Then end up trying on so many shoes that are the wrong width because they aren't any width choices. As a result, people tend to buy the WRONG fit not the BEST fit or they feel so bad for the sales persons "hard work" that they buy something that ends up sitting in the closest.
- All brands and styles of shoes fit differently. Don't select a shoe by size alone. A size 10 in one brand or style may be smaller or larger or narrow or wider than the same size in another brand or style.
- Talk with the salesperson and explain your needs and/or problems.
At SAS Comfort Stores Victoria we are a full line fitting store. We carry 5 different widths in most shoes and sandals.
