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| Girls' size 5, close to a women's 7 or men's 6. Notice how I tied everything with elastic? Easy to slip on now and it doesn't really look that dorky. |
It's crazy ridiculous, trying to figure out what the "next size up" is when your children are in larger kids' sizes, or transitioning to adult sizes. Not to mention that each brand name has its own little fit and way to do things. I'm going nuts here.
So I got out Rose's old Nike shoe which clearly has all the measurements on the label. The US measurement. The UK measurement. The measurement in centimeters and some other odd measurement. I took this info and chatted with the LL Bean representative to ask, what's the next size up?
Aaaand the first person who answered the phone couldn't answer. Which, that should tell you a little something about how hard things are to figure out. Here's a lady who has probably spent the last 10 years of her life taking orders and answering questions from consumers. She probably knows quite a bit about the products.
She transferred me to a "customer service specialist." That person was able to figure out how big THEIR shoes are in centimeters, and then from the measurement I have in the old shoe I'm able to make a bit of a conversion and figure out what the next size would be in THEIR shoe line.
Everybody, please do things in centimeters or millimeters or tenths of an inch or I don't care what, but make up your mind. Call the Five Families together for a conference in Nyack (or where-ever you shoe-dealing lords hang out) and issue some sort of proclamation about it.
Because to add to my confusion? When Woodjie is done with his shoes, I have no clue whether they will fit Rose. You just have to try them on every season because a boys' 7 is different from a men's 7, which is different from a girls' 7 and that's way different from a women's 7. And like I said, add the different brand names and so on into the mix and it's just a mess.
OH! And toddler sizes. Dear me, I forgot that both boy and girl sizes can also come in TODDLER sizes, so one has to specify toddler or "big kid" shoes when ordering.
I'm just gonna bring my girl out to a full-service shoe store and have her measured for sneakers. If there are any full-service shoe stores around anymore...
My Sketchers are 8 1/2 Wide.... while all my other shoes are 9's or 10s. I always wore 10 1/2 's until I was 60. Go figure, eh?
ReplyDeleteSketchers makes a huge difference in terms of width. Elf can wear "regular" shoes in Sketchers, but in other shoes would be a super-wide.
DeleteThere are full service shoe stores around and I think it's well worth getting rose's feet measured at least once a year or even twice if she is growing fast. write down the measurement in all sizes US, UK and Continental, that way you'll have them all on hand when ordering. Also write down if he is a regular fit or a wide fit.
ReplyDeleteI've always had trouble getting shoes because my feet are short and extra wide, so I buy boys shoes if I need sneakers and continental size 37 for women's shoes.
Good advice! Offhand, I can only think of one place in a 10 mile radius that would measure. But it might be worth preventing a costly mistake until her feet stop growing (or at least slow down).
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