Shoe Size Conversion Chart

The 60-second rule

Shoe size = foot length + wiggle room, translated through one of four scales. US, UK, and EU numbers are just different labels for the same foot length in centimeters. A 26.0 cm foot is a US men’s 9, a UK 8.5, and an EU 42. The lookup above reads any row of the chart; the finder rounds your measurement up to the next charted size; the converter jumps between the men’s and women’s US scales.

The worked examples, line by line

Lookup: US men’s 9 → the chart row reads UK 8.5, EU 42, 26.0 cm. Same row as a US women’s 10.5 — because the women’s 10 is 25.9 cm (a hair short) and 10.5 is 26.2 cm (the next available), the industry’s 1.5-size shorthand lands on 10.5.

Foot-length finder: a 26.0 cm foot rounds up to men’s US 9 (26.0 cm row exactly) and women’s US 10.5 (26.2 cm is the first row at or above 26.0). Rounding up is deliberate — toes need clearance, and half a size of extra room beats blisters.

Men’s–women’s converter: women’s US 8 (24.1 cm) matches the men’s chart row at 24.1 cm exactly: men’s US 6.5 — an exact chart match, no rule needed. Where the tables don’t share a row, the converter falls back to the ±1.5 rule (men’s 9 + 1.5 = women’s 10.5).

The printable reference tables

Both charts in full, men’s and women’s, US to UK, EU, and foot length. Use your browser’s print function for a hard copy — the tables are print-styled.

Print the chart

Men’s

Women’s

Output · formula · meaning

Who uses this

• The cross-border shopper: a US men’s 9 ordering from a UK site — converts to UK 8.5 instead of guessing and paying return shipping.
• The gift buyer: knows her sister is a women’s 8 but the listing is EU — reads EU 38-39 off the chart and orders once.
• The thrift-store hunter: finds a pair marked EU 42 — checks that it means US men’s 9 / 26.0 cm before trying them on.
• The in-between-sizes runner: measures 26.0 cm at night, takes the women’s 10.5 instead of squeezing into the 10, and skips the blisters.

Accuracy & limitations

These are consensus conversions assembled from multiple published size charts — but sizes vary by brand, sometimes by a full half size. Athletic brands tend to run small, dress brands true, and European brands use the EU number as the master. Measure in the evening: feet swell up to half a size during the day, so a morning measurement undersizes you. The ±1.5 rule (women’s = men’s + 1.5) is the industry shorthand where the charts disagree — close, but the exact row match is truer. Width (narrow/regular/wide) is not covered here; two feet the same length can need different widths. When between sizes, go up.