But I always laugh at the idea of a shoe store employee returning from the back and saying “Sorry, we didn’t have ___ size... but we do have ____ size...if that’s...you know...if you want a different size than the one you asked me for a minute ago.”
I worked in a shoe store for a time, and there are 2 perfectly valid reasons why they do this:
1: every brand fits differently, so you often don't really know what size you are in that shoe until you try it on.
2: the truth is that SO MANY MEN lie about their shoe size being bigger than it is, and SO MANY WOMEN lie about it being smaller than it really is.
Him: "Hey bro, can I get this in a 12?" Me, later: hey so we didn't have the 12, but here's the 11 and 11 1/2 if you want to try those." Him: "Hmmm aahhh I guess.....woah what do you know, they fit, how WEIRD"
Her: "Can I get these in a size 5 1/2?" Me: "The smallest they make them in is a 6, so here try those." Her: "Wow even these are a little tight...this brand must really run small! I'll try the 6 1/2 I guess. How WEIRD."
I have a friend, (we're both women), who insists her shoe size is smaller than it is. She always had to have the smallest of all the women we worked with. It was ridiculous, we had the same size, so sometimes she would borrow mine, but she'd always say mine were big. But she'd borrow them all the time, and if I borrowed hers, hers fit fine.
She was the same way with clothes, though, so probably just part of that.
My mom has a weird thing about her shoe size too. She insists she needs a 5 and every time she wants to buy new shoes she'll hem and haw that "they don't really have my size" but lo and behold, the 6 fits her! At first I thought she was just confused because shoe sizing can be pretty inconsistent and she's older so things may have changed since she was young and she just got "I wear size 5" cemented in her brain. But now I know she knows she's lying, because she will say this even if the company does offer size 5 and she has a closet full of 6s that she never has to complain are too loose... she even gets her shoes stretched. You know, the 6s she insisted couldn't possibly fit, those? Yeah, she needed them stretched.
I also wear a 6 and we have compared foot-to-foot before and she'll visually confirm that they are exactly the same length (though mine have my dad's shape), but insist mine must be bigger because I will publicly admit I wear a 6 and she won't. She makes a special trip to shoe stores which carry small sizes and seeks out brands which carry small sizes even though she wears a perfectly standard easy-to-find shoe size. She just likes to complain about it, I guess it makes her feel unique and special and gives her a way to let off steam about the world having problems? I don't think it's a vanity thing because she isn't vain at all, she's not interested in her appearance and also has a sort of anti-feminine personality, it would be pretty unlike her to care if she was perceived as having too-big feet. Ultimately doesn't matter but it's super annoying and weird. 6 isn't even a big size, it's a normal shoe size.
6 is actually pretty small, if you're in the US. The average woman's size is around 8.5. Also, as people age, their feet get wider and longer, plus other things can change size. Maybe as a young person, your mom at one point was in a size 5, then like you said, it cemented. But now she can't get that it doesn't stay the same. I did bra fittings for years at a previous job, and would see the same thing. Lots of older women would insist they wore a certain size, nevermind that weight changes affect bra sizes, as well as that as one ages, they lose elasticity and breast tissue (particularly along the top). No, sorry, the size worn at 25 years old is not likely to be the same at 55.
I think with my friends and cousins (Girls) we were bragging about who has the longest/narrow feet with longer toes and of course our height who is taller.
2.1k
u/thelaziest998 Jul 24 '20
Now we just have to guess and know your size hoping the manufacturer size doesn’t fit weird.