Men’s to Women’s Shoe Sizes

Sometimes when I’m buying footwear, I need to convert mens to women’s shoe sizes.

Why?

Because I have a double wide foot.

Sometimes women’s shoes simply aren’t wide enough for me.

Therefore, I’ll look at men’s shoes, which tend to run wider naturally.

Now, when I’m doing this shoe size conversion, I’m usually looking at men’s sneakers or athletic shoes.

Then I figure out which size in women’s shoes they would be.

For example, for years I wore Brooks sneakers.

I mentioned this is my recent review of Hoka sneakers.

However, women’s Brooks sneakers were never wide enough for me.

Therefore, once I knew what my size was in a men’s shoe, I would buy the men’s version of Brooks.

Make sense?

How to figure men’s to women’s shoe sizes

I’ve had readers reach out and ask how it is that I’ve been able to buy men’s shoes that fit.

Once you know how to convert a men’s size shoe to a women’s, it’s easy to figure out what size you can wear.

When I’m doing these calculations, I’m thinking about US shoe sizes.

However, I know that in some instances you may be buying shoes that come in European or UK shoe sizes.

For that, I would recommend you check out this article on Euro to US shoe sizes.

How do men’s shoe sizes compare with women’s

Overall, I’ve found that men’s sizes are two sizes bigger than women’s sizes, give or take. 

However, like with so many things–shoes included–it depends on the brand.

For example, in women’s sneakers, I wear a size 9. 

When I try on men’s sneakers, sometimes a size 7 fits perfectly.

So, following the minus two equation or conversion.

On the other hand, there are some brands that run differently, so a men’s size 8 or 8.5 or even size 6 fits me.

Conversely, if you wore a women’s size 7, it would likely be a size 5 or possibly 5.5 in men’s.

However, many men’s brands don’t go smaller than 6; if you’re lucky, they stock 5.5.

Therefore, you may have to look at children’s sizes.

However, I’m not sure you’ll get the size and width benefits of wearing a man’s shoe size.

On the flipside, if you’re a woman with bigger feet, you may want to try men’s shoes.

For example, if you wear a woman’s size 12, you should look at a men’s size 10, give or take half a size.

Or, if you wear a women’s 9, you would wear men’s size 7 or so.

It’s really hard to make a blanket statement about men’s sizes to women’s sizes. 

That’s why trying on shoes is so important.

And even if you’ve bought a certain shoe in the past, try them on again when buying new.

Different version of same style may fit differently

For example, I mentioned wearing men’s sizes in Brooks running shoes for years.

I loved them.

However, then Brooks changed the “last” (that’s the shape and form of the shoe) for the style I loved.

It was Brooks Levitate.

I think when I first bought them, they were Levitate 3.

These are my shoes in the photo below.

By the time I needed a new pair, Brooks had “transitioned” to Levitate 5.

And that’s when I discovered that the 5 wasn’t the same as the 3. 

In fact, that style of Brooks no longer fit my feet at all.

Even changing sizes and widths didn’t help.

That was one of the reasons I transitioned to Hoka sneakers.

In addition, I was pleasantly surprised, too, that I could buy Hokas in a women’s wide width and didn’t have to bother with men’s sizes anymore.

Chart of Men’s to Women’s shoe sizes

This is just an estimation of the conversion of men’s shoes size US to women’s shoe sizes US.

US Men’s Shoe Size	US Women’s Shoe Size
5.5	7.5
6	8
6.5	8.5
7	9
7.5	9.5
8	10
8.5	10.5
9	11
9.5	11.5
10	12

Chart of women’s to men’s shoe size

On the other hand, here is a rough estimate of how you would convert women’s shoe sizes to men’s shoe size.

US Women’s Shoe Size	US Men’s Shoe Size
7.5	5.5
8	6
8.5	6.5
9	7
9.5	7.5
10	8
10.5	8.5
11	9
11.5	9.5
12	10

Final thoughts on men’s to women’s shoe sizes

Unfortunately, so many shoe brands and online shoe stores seem, at first, to have helpful information on converting shoe sizes.

For example, take this page on the Zappos website called shoe size conversion.

Given the theme of this article, you would think this site would let women know how to buy shoes in men’s sizes or vice versa.

Unfortunately, you would be wrong.

Instead, the conversions it’s talking about are European to US or UK, which, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve already covered.

That’s why I felt it was important to cover this topic.

Because if you have wide feet like I do or big feet like some tall women do, then you might need to look at men’s shoes.

Hopefully, this article has provided enough information to help you out. If not, please let me know if you still have any unanswered questions.