International shoe size conversion chart women and men

A European size is the Paris point: the length of the shoe last in centimetres multiplied by 1.5. The last is your foot plus 1.5 to 2 cm of room, which is why a 24 cm foot ends up in a EU 39 rather than a EU 36. British sizing counts barleycorns, a third of an inch each, from a fixed point at the heel. American sizing uses the same barleycorn step but starts from a different zero, and starts from a different zero again for women than for men.

That last detail is the one that catches people out. A US women's 8 and a US men's 8 are not the same shoe. On the scale this chart uses, men's sizes run 1.5 below women's for the same foot, so a woman who takes a US 8 takes a US 6.5 in men's or unisex trainers. Unisex sneaker listings are almost always in men's sizing. Some brands, and the ISO conversion table, use a 1-size relationship instead, so check the brand chart if you are between sizes.

Japan and China skip the whole problem in principle. JIS S 5037 and GB/T 43293 define the number as your foot length, in centimetres and millimetres, with no separate men's and women's scale. In practice most brands print a box number that runs about a centimetre above the true foot, and the columns here follow the box labels because that is what a listing shows you. On a Japanese-market brand that states its number is your foot length, order the number closest to your measurement.

Width is the variable no length chart carries. Two people with identical 26 cm feet can need a B and a 2E, and the wider foot in a standard width will feel half a size short. If a shoe is the right length and pinches across the ball, the fix is a wider fitting, not a longer shoe.