Large Size Female Footwear

[Love4heels]

Check www.zappos.com

I`m surprised to see how many high heeled female footwear they have in size US 12 (eu 44)

Does that mean that female feet are growing or do they also realized that men also using female footwear?

Edited September 9, 2012 by Love4heels

[FastFreddy2]

Does that mean that female feet are growing or do they also realized that men also using female footwear?

I think the volume driver, will be market demand from women with larger/longer feet. When I was young, it was unusual to see people over 6ft in height. Not unknown, and plenty of 5'10" and maybe even 5'11", though I almost never saw women of this height.

Now, 6ft is common, and a fair proportion of them women. While I was working in a bar, I was always surprised at how tall the 20-30 year old customers were, and the proportion of them having this height. My best mate has 3 lads. He's the same height as me [around 5'7"] as is his wife. All of his boys are 6ft or over.

I think in the US, younger people are even (generally) taller. This is a large market for higher priced shoes, and may even be the largest market for them. [ie. Largest shoe consumer for $50+ shoes, than even China where most of them will have been made.]

Taller people have larger feet. At least two women in my extended family take a UK8/US10, and they are the same height as me. [Though both a little heavier.] A 6ft woman, I would think might need a US12 at least? My personal experience suggests Afro-Caribbeans (for the same given height) take even larger sizes. These two components will I'm sure, have provided a major shift in the market.

Conversely, if I look around auction sites and large discount chains like TK Maxx, there are always plenty of attractive styles at give away prices if you are a UK3 or UK4. It begins to look like ladies with smaller feet, is very unusual. In fact I've only ever known one girlfriend with UK5, the rest have had a UK6. (Or slightly larger, if they were honest. )

With larger ladies shoe sizes available, I'm sure it'll allow men to buy nicer/cheaper styles (the benefits of increasing volumes) and that too, will help ramp up sales making it even more attractive for manufacturers to get involved in making larger sizes. But I think the driver for this change is the female buying market.

It's certainly about time some of the UK's volume high street brands woke up to the opportunity of selling shoes to girls with larger feet.

"Dune" and "Topshop" are the two worst. Possibly no loss to me with Dune, as their product is starting to look over-priced. Topshop have nice styles from time to time, but their sizing regime is terrible. Major (quality) brands Next/Marks and Spencer call an EU42 a UK8. Not Topshop, that's a UK9 to them (as with Dune too actually). Neither Topshop nor Dune cater for an EU42 (true UK8), though Topshop is starting to include this size in some of its shoe range, but still refer to it as UK9.

All this analysis aside, larger sizes = more choice for us men. This is very good news.