FORT Koffee Klatch

[AJane]

I used to wear a 7 1/2 or an 8, and now I wear a 9 (I even have one pair of boots that's a size 10 - those really long, pointy-toed kind). I thought my feet were growing but maybe it is shoe sizes - what a relief that would be.

[Rattus]

I know we've talked about the size of women's clothing in this thread, so I thought I'd ask this here -- has anyone else started feeling like shoe sizes are sometimes different? I don't know if I'm imagining things or if my feet have just gotten bigger (at age 31), but after years of wearing a 9, in the past few months I've found 9 1/2 to be more comfortable on several shoe-shopping occasions. Yet my old shoes that were 9's -- including a 7-year-old pair I'm wearing right now -- still fit perfectly. Is it just me? Am I going crazy?

No, you're not going crazy. Your feet do expand as you get older. Personally, I'm about one to one and a half sizes larger than I was twenty-five years ago and I know it's my feet, not the shoe sizing, because I've hung on to shoes for years expecting that some day I'll fit into them again.

Your older shoes that still fit have likely stretched along with your burgeoning tootsies.

[Lucy]

Dammit! I was hoping it was the shoemakers and not my feet. Although it does seem to be a length issue, not width. Oh, well, I don't really have old shoes that no longer fit, it's just more that I was surprised to be in 9 1/2 in new shoes. Sometimes. It's not even predictable, which is even more irritating.

[CantGetNuf]

I gained half a shoe size with each pregnancy. I was a size 7 for years and then at 21 I had my first child. My feet swelled so bad during the pregnancy I usually wore moccosins and other stretchy type shoes. When I went to buy new shoes only a 7 1/2 fit. I was a 7 1/2 for four years and then after my second pregnancy I was an 8 and have been since.

[prhoshay]

My feet went up one size during pregnancy, and have stayed the same ever since...so far.

[Cornedbeef]

No, you're not going crazy. Your feet do expand as you get older. Personally, I'm about one to one and a half sizes larger than I was twenty-five years ago and I know it's my feet, not the shoe sizing, because I've hung on to shoes for years expecting that some day I'll fit into them again.

Your older shoes that still fit have likely stretched along with your burgeoning tootsies.

Does the increased shoe size apply to men as well as women?

[Amy Lee]

Don't they decrease when you lose weight?

[CantGetNuf]

That would explain a lot Cornedbeef. I always buy my husbands shoes and I know for many years I have bought him a 10. A couple of years ago he complained that they were to small so I started getting him a 10 1/2. The last pair I bought him he complained that they're to tight.

[prhoshay]

Maybe it's gravity?

[just1paul]

I didn't know gravity made my feet go sideways too. The stomach sinking maybe but not the feet.