Two boxes in front of me.

Specialized say their Euro 46 is a US 12.25 and 29.5cm

Shimano say Euro 46 is a US 11.2 and 29.2cm.

Thats 3mm difference.

Hardly a massive variance

I was wondering the same when the cheapest place for a pair of winter boots who actually had stock only listed sizes of Shimano shoes in UK – and the old ones I have are only labelled in US and EU.

I bought some others in the end. The claimed variation was >1 UK size.

I always go a size up for Shimano shoes.

It is the difference between metric and imperial barleycorns.

A few years ago, Specialized got their labels (and boxes) printed up wrong. Their EU38 (size 5) was printed UK6.5, and EU39 (size 6) was printed UK7.5.

That meant I was able to buy several unworn pairs on Ebay for £10-20, from people who’d ordered them online, only to find they were way too small.

But now Specialized seem to be even worse, and I’ve just bought a pair of Cadet shoes labelled EU40/UK6.5 – even though my feet have been size 5 for several decades.

It doesn’t matter what they say – they are all massively variable!

I have Specialized Expert MTB shoes in an EU48 – they fit perfectly.

I have Shimano ME7 shoes in EU48 and they’re 5mm too long. I will use/wear them but the difference is annoying.

Euro sizes are designed so that more sizes are packed in at the peak of the size range. ie sizes 7-8-9-10 cover a shorter physical range of mm measurements than 10-11-12-13 do.

That’s not the case with US and UK sizes, they are linear.

So they need nudging about a bit, and then different Last shapes etc.

Euro sizes are designed so that more sizes are packed in at the peak of the size range. ie sizes 7-8-9-10 cover a shorter physical range of mm measurements than 10-11-12-13 do.

That’s not the case with US and UK sizes, they are linear.

So they need nudging about a bit, and then different Last shapes etc.
Well that may be the case but the map between them should remain constant – a EU 46 should always be (say) a UK 11 and a US 12. This clearly isn’t the case from my Googling – well I suspect it is it’s just there’s a lot of bollocks on the internet.

Euro sizes are designed so that more sizes are packed in at the peak of the size range. ie sizes 7-8-9-10 cover a shorter physical range of mm measurements than 10-11-12-13 do.

That’s not the case with US and UK sizes, they are linear.

Today I learned…. thanks for that.

However – at per Philjunior – the map should still be constant. The length measurement in cm is really useful and maybe it’s becoming more common – i don’t remember being aware of it on any older shoe boxes.

There is no consistency at all –
https://www.shoesizingcharts.com/ says an EU46 is a UK 12.5
http://www.dancesport.uk.com/shoes/conchart.htm says a 46 is a UK 11

I’ve always thought my UK size was a 10…

They do seem to be consistent between EU and Japanese – it’s the UK and US that are all over the place.

I have never been able to understand show sizes full stop. The EU seems great at standardising our banana sizes but can’t insist on a shoes sizing system that makes any sense. Why can it not just be done in cm. What the hell does a 10 or 11 actually equate to. It must cost the large mail order companies millions in returned stock. You would think it would be in their interest to standardise sizing.

As I understand it the sizing is based on the size of the template used to make the shoe itself, but as the shape of that varies the size is at best a guideline. Personally I’ve owned from size 10 to 13 shoes…

I find EU sizes are more consistent, I either take a 49 or a 50, and even within that I might find a 49 tad too small and a 50 a tad too big. But in UK sizes I might take from a 13 to a 15. But the last is much more problematic, I do find most shoes cut in too much across the big toe, and having such big feet I just have to live with it.

What surprises me is how some manufacturers change the last between models, ie specialized 2fo clip and clip lite, I was fine with the 2fo clip sizing wise, but didn’t really like the shoe on the whole, but they made the clip lite more pointed so even though it was a better shoe I found unwearable. WTF do they think peoples foot shape change because of the discipline that are riding?

Shoe sizes have always varied – never been bothered by that. Try some shoes on and buy the ones that fit. Bingo!

Oh, there’s proper weirdness out there. What is a 43 might be 42.8 or 43.3 for example, but are both nominally a size 9. Haglöfs switched from one to another a few years back and the model of shoe that had always fitted me perfectly in a size nine, was suddenly too large. But now the 8.5 fits perfectly…

A ‘last’ is actually a wooden or plastic foot that the shoe is built around based on their best guess of their typical customer’s foot shape. Shoe factories have piles of the things. Anyway, what you want, in terms of fit, is a brand with a last that closely approximates to the shape of your foot. Anyway…