Shoe Size Converter — US, UK, EU & CM

This shoe size converter matches US, UK, EU, and centimeter shoe sizes for men, women, and kids using published sizing tables, so you can shop confidently on an international retailer's site or figure out what a hand-me-down European size actually means in US terms.

Arb Digital put this tool together after noticing how often footwear and fashion retail clients need clear, accurate size-conversion content for their audiences — this converter is the same kind of practical resource we build directly into client websites, made free for anyone to use.

What This Shoe Size Converter Does

Pick a category — men's, women's, or kids' — choose whether you're starting from a foot length in centimeters or an existing US size, enter the number, and the shoe size converter finds the closest matching row in its size chart and displays the equivalent UK size, EU size, and foot length in both centimeters and inches. Because shoe sizing is never perfectly linear or universally standardized, it snaps to the nearest published size rather than inventing decimal sizes that don't actually exist on a shelf.

Men's, women's, and kids' sizing all use different underlying scales even for the same foot length — a men's US 7 and a women's US 7 do not correspond to the same physical foot size, which is why this shoe size converter always asks for category first.

How to Use It

1. Choose the category — men's, women's, or kids' — since each has a distinct sizing scale.
2. Select your starting point. If you have a US size from a label, choose "US size." If you've measured your foot, choose "Foot length (cm)" for the most reliable match.
3. Enter the number and click Convert.
4. Read the UK, EU, and centimeter equivalents in the result grid, and use the foot-length figure to sanity-check against your own measurement.

How to Measure Your Foot Length

For the most reliable size conversion, measure your actual foot rather than relying on a size printed inside an old pair of shoes, since shoes stretch, shrink, and vary between manufacturers.

1. Place a sheet of paper on a hard floor against a wall.
2. Stand on the paper with your heel touching the wall, wearing the socks you'd normally wear with that shoe.
3. Mark the floor at the tip of your longest toe (which for many people is the second toe, not the big toe).
4. Measure the straight-line distance from the wall edge of the paper to your mark, in centimeters.
5. Measure both feet — most people have one foot slightly larger than the other — and size for the larger one.
6. Measure again in the evening, since feet swell slightly over the course of a day, and size around that larger evening measurement for the most comfortable fit.

Why Shoe Sizes Are Approximate, Not Exact

Unlike a length or volume conversion, shoe sizing has no single international standard the way meters or liters do. US, UK, and EU sizes were each developed independently, using different base units (the UK/US system historically derives from barleycorn-based increments, while EU or "Paris point" sizing is based on two-thirds of a centimeter), and no two brands apply the resulting scale with perfect consistency. Nike, Adidas, and a small independent bootmaker can each interpret "EU 42" slightly differently depending on their own last (the foot-shaped mold shoes are built around).

That's why this shoe size converter — like every size chart, including those published by major retailers — gives you the closest standard match rather than a guaranteed perfect fit. Foot width, arch height, and the specific shoe's cut all affect real-world fit beyond what any length-based size chart can capture. Organizations like the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) have proposed unified "Mondopoint" sizing based directly on foot length in millimeters, but adoption across mainstream US, UK, and EU retailers remains limited, which is exactly why so many shoppers still need a converter at all.

Men's, Women's, and Kids' Sizing Differences

Men's and women's US sizing scales are offset from each other by roughly 1.5–2 sizes for the same foot length — a women's US size is typically about 1.5 sizes larger in label number than the equivalent men's size for an identical foot length, which is why unisex or "men's sizing" sneakers often come with a printed conversion note for women shoppers.

Kids' sizing adds another layer: it runs on its own scale that starts around toddler size 1 and continues through "youth" sizes, typically topping out somewhere around youth size 6Y-7Y, at which point the scale essentially hands off to adult women's sizing (a youth 6Y or 7Y is close to a women's 8). UK kids' sizing restarts its numbering at UK 1 partway through the youth range, which is a common source of confusion for parents converting a European kids' shoe size.

Quick Reference: Approximate Size Chart

These rows are illustrative reference points — use the calculator above for your exact size and category.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Trusting the size printed inside an old, worn shoe instead of measuring your current foot length.
• Using a men's size chart for a women's shoe (or vice versa) — the two scales are offset, not identical.
• Assuming every brand's EU 42 fits identically — the last (mold) each brand uses varies, especially between athletic and dress shoes.
• Measuring your foot only in the morning, when feet are naturally at their smallest for the day.
• Confusing UK kids' sizing (which restarts near UK 1) with UK adult sizing when converting a European child's shoe.

Related Free Tools From Arb Digital

Pair this with our clothing size converter for tops, bottoms, and dresses across US, UK, and EU sizing, plus the length converter if you need centimeters, inches, or millimeters for anything else around the house. Our cooking measurement converter and fuel economy converter cover other everyday US-vs-international conversions. Browse everything in our free online tools hub.

Width Sizing: The Dimension a Length Chart Can't Show You

Every size in the chart above and in the calculator itself describes length only, but comfortable fit also depends heavily on width, which US sizing traditionally expresses with letters — B or M for a standard women's width, D for a standard men's width, with narrower widths (A, AA) and wider widths (2E, 4E) branching off in either direction from that baseline. UK and EU sizing generally skip a letter-width system entirely and instead rely on each brand's last to determine how roomy a given length actually is, which is part of why a UK 9 dress shoe from one maker can feel noticeably narrower or wider than a UK 9 from another, even when both match your measured foot length exactly.

This matters most for people at either end of the width spectrum, and for anyone converting a size between systems that don't share a width convention at all — a EU size on its own tells you nothing about whether that shoe is cut for a narrow or wide foot, since the number encodes length alone. If a shoe consistently feels too tight across the ball of the foot despite being the "right" length, that's usually a width problem rather than a length problem, and no length-based converter, including this one, can fully solve it; trying on the specific model, or checking a brand's own width guide, is the only reliable fix.

Why Two Brands' "Same Size" Can Still Fit Differently

Beyond width, the shape of the last itself varies enormously by shoe category and brand philosophy. A running shoe's last is typically curved and built around how the foot flexes and rolls during a stride, a dress shoe's last is often straighter and narrower through the toe box for a sleeker silhouette, and a hiking boot's last usually allows extra volume for a thicker sock and some toe splay on descents. Two shoes labeled with the exact same US, UK, or EU size but built on these different lasts can require genuinely different actual foot lengths to fit comfortably, which is why experienced shoppers treat a size conversion as a strong starting estimate rather than a guaranteed fit, especially when buying a category of shoe or a brand they haven't worn before.

This is also why returns and exchanges are so common in footwear e-commerce, and why many retailers explicitly encourage first-time buyers to order two adjacent sizes and return whichever doesn't work — an approach that acknowledges size charts, including this one, can only convert numbers consistently, not guarantee how a specific last will feel on a specific foot. When shopping a brand for the first time, checking that brand's own fit notes or customer reviews about sizing (running large, running small, narrow toe box, and so on) alongside this converter's output gives a more complete picture than the size number alone ever can.

Frequently Asked Questions

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