It's not a crazy question. I am completely fed up with buying shoes. No matter how comfortable a shoe feels in the store, they always pinch my feet or give me blisters. I am not even sure what to do anymore.

This is what I found out a few weeks ago when buying shoes: My left foot is bigger than my right foot by about half a size. Seriously. So the solution is to go UP a size and then put a lift (like one of those foamy things) in the shoe that is too loose.

Unless the size 8.5 shoes were really gigantic on you, in which case you can take your size 8 shoes to a shoe repair store and have them stretched a bit. It works!

Have them stretched or buy those stretcher thingy. You'll be okay.

In the 8.5's my heel was coming out on every step and my toes jiggled around.

I think MuddDude has a stretcher thing, so I'll use that. Thanks!

they always pinch my feet or give me blisters.

I think I have wide toes and a narrow heel. If the shoe fits in the heel area my toes get squeezed, and if my toes are comfy then my heel slides around and I get blisters on the back. I need to start hand-sewing my own leather moccasins or something.

I have a fantastic pair of Italian shoes which hurt my feet like crazy. I almost never wear them.

Ha! I just poured testosterone all over your thread.

if the shoes are leather, you can stretch them in the tight spots with rubbing alcohol. As a wide-footed female, this has been my weapon of choice for years. You WILL have to re-polish them afterwards however.

or you can just go to any shoeshine guy, and they'll stretch / polish them for you. Seriously. I've had this done.

I've always bought leather shoes to fit the "small" foot, and stretched the wider side out. Otherwise, when they naturally stretch to accomodate my feet, I'm left with one shoe that i'm constantly walking out of.

muddgirl, that's my problem too. A wide forefoot / narrow heel is a common women's shoe complaint for those of us who don't have the bizarrely skinny spider-monkey-feet that Italian shoe companies seem to design for. You'd think they'd have figured this out by now. I think Etienne Aigner believes women's feet should be shaped like piano keys.

At a store we have here where they still measure feet with those metal things you step on, I was told that I have the "classic European" foot, which is what you guys are describing: wider toe box, narrow heel. Also high arches. So far the brands that work for me have been Dansko, Keen, Wolky, Naot, and Ecco. Once you find a brand that your feet agree with, you can go on Zappos and read the buyer reviews for them. Lots of times they recommend additional brands that also work well. And they pay shipping both ways, so if you get something that doesn't work, send it back, no fuss no muss.

Shoes are the one thing in my wardrobe I won't skimp on, pricewise. One bout of plantar fascitis cured me of cheaply made shoes, now I spend an average of $130/pr, but they last longer, my feet are much happier, and they're well worth it.

Good luck and happy shopping!

This thread is useless without pictures.

I have the same "wide toes, narrow heel" problem. Drives me nuts. Good thing I'm at home and can either go barefoot or wear slippers (depending on the weather). And as cold as it's been, I'm still wearing my (fake) Crocs out in all weather.

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I am not even sure what to do anymore.

I KNOW. I've almost been reduced to wearing flip-flops in the summer and Uggs in the winter...nothing else fits right. Except, I did borrow a pair of wide black pumps from someone who bought them at Torrid, and they felt great all day. So maybe, like me, your feet are wider than you think.

Professionally stretched is the way to go. Won't cost much, either.

New shoes, yaaaay!

Former shoe guy here (I worked for a large U.S. maker of women's shoes for years). Once upon a time, U.S. women's footwear makers made a much larger matrix of sizes and widths than is customary in today's internationalized shoe industry. Back in the 1980's, you could buy quality brands such as Red Cross, Selby, Joyce (and Brown Shoe brands, such as Naturalizer), in widths from AAAAA (5A) to EE (2E) in most styles. You could even buy women's shoes with narrow heels and wider ball measurements than standard grading provides (marked as "3A/B" for example, meaning an AAA heel and a B ball grade), as many American women's feet did not, and do not, fit standard international grading well. There are a lot of reasons for this, beyond the scope of time I have tonight to discuss.

But in the mid 1980's, protective tariffs came off the table for U.S. shoe manufacturers, and the domestic industry collapsed in about 7 years. By the late 80's, we went from more than 1500 women's shoe manufacturing operations in the U.S. to less than 200, in the face of massive cheap imports. And of those left, most were volume shoe businesses, making cheap footwear like injection molded tennis shoes, clogs, and slippers. Manufacture of well fitted, well engineered American footwear on a mass basis simply ceased under cost pressure of import footwear.

It's very expensive to manufacture a large matrix of sizes and widths, simply because you need a lot of lasts in all those different size combinations, as well as all the other tooling that is size related (cutting dies, lasting machine inserts and wipers, nailing machine inserts, etc.) And not only do you have to pay for all those different lasts and tooling, but you have to take more time in manufacture to adjust machinery for sizes, and to care for all that tooling (storing it, cleaning it, checking and maintaining it, etc.). So cheap foreign shoes came in Narrow, Medium and Wide. Fine if you had Narrow, Medium or Wide feet, or didn't mind blisters, bunions, hammertoes, or other foot problems. Very tough if you had an American woman's sense of fit for shoes, circa 1975 to 1980, and were one of the 7 in 10 American women whose feet don't conform to international grading standards.

Now, you can get lots of inexpensive shoes, from around the world. But many of you will have the devil's own time finding any that fit, because, in the main, for your feet, shoes aren't made in volume that will fit.

What's a girl to do?

First of all, don't relax your fit standards any more than you may already have. I know there are many young women who, literally, have never owned a pair of shoes that actually fit their feet, so that saying "Don't relax your fit standards." is pretty meaningless to them. So, here is what I mean: Shoes that fit your feet don't:
1) Hurt, even from the moment you put them on, unless your foot is already damaged.
2) Create blisters. A shoe that blisters your foot doesn't fit it properly. Period.
3) Cramp your toes. A shoe that pinches your toes may have one of several defects, but again, in some way, it doesn't fit.
4) Change your stride, or walk. Well, with the exception of high heels over 7/8's height, which normally will cause foreshortening of your stride, by intention.

Just don't buy shoes that don't fit. Wearing shoes that don't fit not only damages your feet, but over time, you come to expect poor fit as the normal situation. It isn't, unless you accept it.

Next, get your feet measured annually by a competent fitter, who knows how to use a Brannock device. Feet do change over time, and with weight, particularly. A woman's foot can change more than 3 shoe sizes, and more than 5 widths, with age, too. To even have a chance of buying shoes that fit, you must know your actual, measured size. You can't get this by "trying on" a lot of shoes, partially because shoe manufacturers use one of several different sizing/grading systems, usually based on their country of manufacturer, where their lasts are generally made. In the U.S., we used to use FIA (Footwear Industries of America) standard system, but most imported footwear uses one of several international systems. In the FIA system, in women's shoes, every full size was an extra 1/3 of inch in sole length, and a half size was 1/6 inch. The lettered width system went up and down from a B width, in 3 dimensional volume increments, originally, and while this worked wonderfully in practice, it was simpler for international grading systems to substitute a 2 dimensional multi-width grade, if they graded much at all. So, European and Japanese sizing systems have far fewer widths than FIA system. A Brannock device measurement will be essentially a 2 dimensional measurement of your foot's sole profile against FIA sizes, but an experienced fitter will push on your feet, and note if your foot is fleshy, or tends to spread under your weight, and compensate the measured sizes accordingly. Use of a Brannock device requires some experience and training, so it is not really a do-it-yourself task, although it may seem that it is. A good fitter will also watch you walk a bit, and consider your stride mechanics, degree of pronation/supination, and weight transfer in stride, all of which factors can call for sizing adjustment recommendations. But start, at least, with a competent Brannock device measurement, taken annually. You can use international size comparison charts, if you must, to convert between sizes, but recognize that in doing so, grossly graded foreign size systems may not offer direct substitution possibilities. You may see how poor a fit you can expect, when trying to convert sizes this way.

Third, with your measured shoe size in mind, and considering any difference in symmetry between your feet (as well as any functional abnormalities like bunions or hammertoes that you may have developed), look for manufacturers who support sizes and widths you may need. This is particularly important if you have feet that are wider than normal, or if you have "narrow heels" as about 15% of American women do.

"Stretching" shoes is a very bad idea, particularly if the shoe has any appreciable heel. Footwear uppers, particularly style shoes, are generally made of materials chosen to have little or no "stretch," because the foot and leg can't easily compensate for the small motion that "stretchy" footwear creates. "Stretching" shoes out of their manufactured shape generally breaks down the materials of which the shoe is made, and can create a significant trip and fall hazard, in the form of a damaged shoe, waiting to hurt you. In the same way, using heel inserts to try to make up for more than 1/2 size in length difference will be unsatisfactory, and possibly even damaging to your shorter foot, particularly in high heels, because of greater slip possibility, and problems with differences in arch length (heel-to-ball) and heel-to-toe length, that occur naturally in smaller, similarly proportioned feet. Shoes that don't fit can't be made to fit in a shoe store, period. "Stretching," inserts, orthotics and similar methods are generally cheap ways of getting you to accept and wear poorly fit footwear, which you might like for style or other reasons. That's fine, if you're OK with mistreating your feet, but don't imagine that you'll get good wear and comfort, unless the shoes you buy actually fit your feet and stride.

If you have significantly asymmetrical feet (more than 1/2 size in length, or more than one full American (FIA system) width difference), you probably won't get a good standard of fit in most shoes by buying a single pair. While it is expensive, I recommend buying separate shoes for each foot (buy 2 pairs of different sizes, and wear the appropriately sized shoe on each foot). This is better, particularly in work shoes or athletic shoes, which are worn for long periods, or in stress situations, than suffering with poor fit, pain and altered stride mechanics.

I didn't even need to finish the first paragraph before I knew that answer would be from paulsc. I'm pretty sure you've forgotten more useful information than I even know.

Yeah, same here. If we could fave comments here, I would fave that comment.

That was really interesting, paulsc. Thanks!

Sorta on topic: I have a couple old (wooden) shoe lasts on my mantle.

Nice info paulsc - especially the history. I think good shoes are vastly overlooked and underrated for comfort.