How to measure your feet for shoes at home

How to measure, step by step

1. Pick the time. The Royal College of Podiatry says feet can expand by as much as half a size during the day, so measure in the afternoon or early evening. The Australian Podiatry Association also says the end of the day, when feet are largest.
2. Wear the socks you’ll wear with the shoes, as the Royal College of Podiatry advises for trying shoes on.
3. Tape the sheet down on a hard floor, with one edge tight against a wall. Our printable sheet has a heel line to cut along and a ruler printed from it.
4. Stand on it, heel against the wall and weight on that foot. Mark the tip of your longest toe, which the Australian Podiatry Association reminds you may not be your big toe.
5. Trace for width with the pen held upright, and measure across the widest part. The widest part of a shoe should match the ball of your foot.
6. Repeat for the other foot and enter both above.

The printable sheet and its scale check

The sheet is drawn in real millimetres, 180 by 262 mm, so it fits A4 and US Letter. It has a heel line to cut along, a length ruler in centimetres and inches running up from that line to 245 mm (about 9½ inches), a cut-out width scale, a box to write both feet down, and two check bars. Before you trust it, measure the bars with a ruler: one should be exactly 100 mm and the other exactly 4 inches. If they are short, your printer shrank the page; print again at 100% or “Actual size” rather than “Fit to page”. Longer feet go past the printed ruler, so measure those from the cut edge to your mark with a tape measure.

Print the sheet

Reading your result: Mondopoint

Mondopoint is the international shoe-sizing system in ISO 9407:2019, Footwear sizing — Mondopoint system of sizing and marking, last reviewed and confirmed by ISO in 2026. Rather than an arbitrary size number, it describes the foot the shoe is meant to fit, in millimetres. The standard says the length steps are normally 5 mm, although 7.5 mm is sometimes used for specialist footwear, and that sizes marked in centimetres (26 instead of 260) don’t conform. The calculator rounds your larger foot to the nearest 5 mm step. Labels are often written as length over width, such as 265/100; that form is described on Wikipedia’s shoe size article, because the marking clause of the standard isn’t in its free preview.

For EU, UK and US numbers, our sister site Atlas Stitch has a shoe size converter that works from a foot length or a Mondopoint size. Treat any conversion as a starting point: APMA notes that sizes vary from brand to brand.

Two different-size feet

The Australian Podiatry Association says feet are rarely the same size and that shoes should fit the larger foot; APMA says the same. The worked example above has a left foot of 262 mm and a right foot of 266 mm, a 4 mm difference. The shoes are chosen for the right foot: Mondopoint 265/100, with 10 to 15 mm of toe room making an inside length of about 276 to 281 mm. The smaller foot then has a little spare room, which a heel lock can take up so the heel doesn’t slip.

How much room at the end of the shoe

The Australian Podiatry Association gives about one thumb-width, which it puts at 1.5 cm, between the tip of the longest toe and the end of the shoe, because the foot slides forward as you move; its workplace advice says a gap of about 1 cm. So the calculator shows 10 to 15 mm for adults. Your toes should never touch the end.

Children’s feet

The Australian Podiatry Association suggests about 1 cm of growing room, and size checks at least every one to three months up to age three, every four months up to age five, and every six months from five. The Royal College of Podiatry’s back-to-school advice is at least a thumbnail’s length at the toe and a check every eight weeks or so, and it recommends measuring by a trained shoe fitter. Guidance varies a little, so if in doubt, check more often. Buying school shoes or a Christmas present? Measure on the day, and keep the receipt.

What about width?

Width matters as much as length for comfort, but there is no agreed international system of width fittings: ISO 9407 itself says an international width designation can’t be defined at present. Brands use their own letters and numbers, so we don’t print a width chart. Use your width in millimetres to compare against a brand’s own guide, and try shoes on.

Common mistakes

• Measuring in the morning, when feet are smallest.
• Measuring one foot and assuming the other matches.
• Measuring to the big toe when the second toe is longer.
• Tilting the pen while tracing, which draws the outline away from the foot.
• Buying by your old size. Sizes vary from brand to brand, and APMA says you should never have to break in athletic shoes.