To measure the width of your foot, you need a piece of paper, a pen, and a ruler. The process takes about five minutes: trace your foot while standing, then measure the distance across the widest part of the tracing. That measurement, combined with your foot length, tells you your width letter size.
What You Need
Gather a blank sheet of paper large enough for your foot (tape two sheets together if needed), a pen or pencil, a ruler or tape measure, and a hard floor surface. Carpet throws off the tracing. Wear the socks you’d normally wear with shoes, and if you use an orthotic, brace, or AFO, keep it on during the measurement.
Step-by-Step Tracing Method
Place the paper on a hard floor and stand on it with your full weight on the foot. You need to be standing, not sitting, because your foot spreads under your body weight and that spread is what shoes actually need to accommodate. Have someone else trace around your foot while you stand still, or carefully do it yourself. Keep the pen at a 90-degree angle to the paper and hold it snug against the skin the entire way around.
Once you have the tracing, use a ruler to draw a straight line touching the outermost point on each side of the widest part of the foot. This is typically just behind the toes, across the ball of the foot where the bones of your big toe and little toe flare out. Measure the distance between those two lines in inches. That number is your foot width.
While you’re at it, measure the length from the back of the heel to the tip of the longest toe. You’ll need both numbers to find your width letter, because width categories change depending on foot length.
Measure Both Feet
Most people have one foot slightly larger than the other. Trace and measure both, then use the wider measurement when choosing shoes. A difference of an eighth of an inch between feet is common and nothing to worry about.
How Width Letters Work
Shoe width is expressed as a letter, but the system differs for men and women. For women, D is standard, E is wide, and EE is extra wide. C is narrow. For men, the scale shifts: F is standard, G is wide, and H is extra wide, with E being narrow.
The tricky part is that a “wide” foot in a size 5 women’s shoe is a completely different measurement than a “wide” foot in a size 10. Width scales with length. Here are some reference points:
- Women’s size 5, wide: 3 3/16 inches
- Women’s size 7, wide: 3 7/16 inches
- Women’s size 10, wide: 3 3/4 inches
- Men’s size 8, wide: 3 7/8 inches
- Men’s size 10, wide: 4 inches
- Men’s size 12, wide: 4 7/16 inches
Extra-wide sizes run roughly 1/8 inch wider at each length. If your measurement falls between two width categories, your foot shape matters: a thicker, higher-volume foot generally fits better in the wider option, while a flatter foot can often get away with the narrower one.
Using a Brannock Device
The metal foot-measuring tool bolted to the floor in shoe stores is called a Brannock device, and it has a sliding bar specifically for width. After determining your length, you slide the width bar firmly against the outside edge of your foot. Then you find your length size on the sliding bar and read the corresponding width letter. If your size falls between two widths, the same thick-foot-versus-thin-foot rule applies. This is the most reliable quick method, but the at-home tracing gives you an equally useful number you can reference when shopping online.
When to Measure
Conventional advice says to measure your feet in the afternoon or evening because they swell throughout the day. Research on healthy, uninjured feet paints a more nuanced picture. A study in The Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery found no statistically significant change in foot and ankle volume over the course of the day in normal subjects, whether they were walking or sedentary. That said, if you spend long hours on your feet, are pregnant, or retain fluid, you may notice real swelling by evening. In those cases, measuring later in the day captures your foot at its largest, which is the size your shoes need to fit.
Why Width Matters for Foot Health
Getting width right isn’t just about comfort. Shoes that are too narrow compress the ball of the foot and crowd the toes, which over time can cause bunions (a bony enlargement at the base of the big toe), hammertoes, and painful calluses. Once these deformities develop, the foot often becomes even wider, creating a cycle where shoes fit worse and worse. Blisters and nerve irritation across the ball of the foot are earlier warning signs that your shoes aren’t wide enough.
If you’ve always bought shoes by length alone and they pinch across the front, there’s a good chance you need a wider width rather than a longer size. Going up a half size adds length but barely changes width, so the pressure across the ball of the foot stays.