BIG FOOT

A dainty little shoe size may be desirable, but fewer Americans fit the bill

By JENNETTE BARNES, Standard-Times staff writer

A woman walks into a shoe store, the kind where they still measure your feet.

She says to the clerk, "I'm a 7."

Now, here's the punch line: She's not. At all.

"She could really be an 8," said Michael Friedland, owner of Harve's Shoe Box in Dartmouth. "Lots of people out there are wearing shoe sizes that are way too small."

The customer may want to wear a 7 because Mom did, but her feet are bigger -- and so are the rest of America's.

"In the past 10 years, the average size has increased by one full size," said Michael Kormos, who owned Footwear Market Insights before selling to another market research firm five years ago.

Kimberly Ledoux of Swansea, a regular customer at Harve's, wears a 7. Her husband wears a 9. So they never expected their sons would be topping the off-the-rack charts at sizes 12 (the 18-year-old) and 13 (the 20-year-old).

If the boys want a certain style, they sometimes have to get their sneakers by special order.

"Did you see that 15?" their mother exclaimed recently at the shoe store. "It's like a boat!"

Unlike men, for whom large shoe size has become a colloquial measure of manhood, women are still getting over the urge for small, delicate, "dainty" feet.

Women "most definitely" like to wear a small size, said Linda Collins of Stoughton, because "they want to sound petite."

She wears a brace on one foot, a situation that has forced her to be realistic about size. She now wears a size 8, instead of her previous 6 or 7.

Since research on shoe sizes is spotty at best, the sale of shoes becomes a way to track size.

"I've seen the bell curve shift," Mr. Friedland said.

Years ago, the median size for women was 7, he said, but now it's 8 or 8.5. He sells far fewer shoes in size 5 and far more in size 10 than he ever did 20 years ago.

"And they're younger. Ten- and 11-year-old girls are wearing a 7, 8, 9 women's," he said.

In men's, 9 is the most popular size, and the store usually stocks up to size 14.

Americans are taller than they were 100 years ago, due in large part to better nutrition. Feet naturally seem to be following suit.

Richard Johnson, owner of A Proper Fit/Assonet Bootery in Fall River, lamented the decline in measuring foot size. Department stores rarely do measuring, and often don't carry large sizes.

"People's feet are getting bigger every generation," he said. "And the sad thing is, they're not making shoes to accommodate these people."

Last year, athletic shoe maker New Balance sold more size 8 and 8.5 sneakers than any other women's size, followed closely by size 9.

As time goes by, the smallest sizes are making up less and less of the U.S. market. Women's sizes 6 and under made up nearly one-quarter of sales across the industry in 1986, but eight years later, they were just 17 percent, according to data from Footwear Market Insights.

At New Balance, sizes 6 and under accounted for just 9.8 percent of women's sales last year. Large sizes -- 9 and over -- were 21.6 percent of sales.

Based on what appeals to buyers, shoe stores make choices about what size to display on the shelf -- typically a small size, at least for women.

Thirty years ago, the women's sample size was a 4, Mr. Friedland said. But today at Harve's, it's a 6.

Deborah Mitchell, vice president of marketing at athletic shoe maker K Swiss, said the company now uses a size 7 for samples instead of a 6.

On the runway, sizes worn by models reflect the ideal of the time, and those sizes are eking their way upward as well. Mr. Friedland said he believes the standard model size will hit a 7 soon, in part because it's hard to find models who wear a 6.