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US to EU shoe size, brand by brand

Updated 18 September 2026. 7 minute read.

The same US size, brand by brand

Read across a row: it is one US women's size, and each cell is the EU size that brand prints for it. The Gap column is the distance between the lowest and the highest brand; a gap of 1 or more means a full EU size.

Who sits at each end

The practical reading: an EU size is only meaningful together with the brand. EU 40 is printed for a US women's 8 at 4 brands including adidas and Arcteryx and for a US women's 10 at Skechers. Carrying your EU number from one brand to the next is how people end up a size out.

Why the conversions differ

Two rulers that never line up

US and UK sizes count barleycorns: one full size is a third of an inch, 8.47 mm, so a half size is 4.23 mm. EU sizes count Paris points: one size is two thirds of a centimetre, 6.67 mm, and a half size is 3.33 mm. Lay the two rulers side by side and the marks almost never coincide. Every brand has to round, and they round differently.

adidas, Arcteryx, HOKA and Norda avoid part of the rounding by printing EU sizes in thirds (38, 38 2/3, 39 1/3), which keeps pace with UK half sizes. That is also why their EU numbers look unlike everyone else's.

A US size is a brand convention

The customary US scale has a defined starting point, but Wikipedia's survey of the systems notes that most US manufacturers use a larger offset than that standard, some by half a barleycorn and some by a whole one. UK sizing is not formally standardised either. The number on the box is each brand's own convention, anchored to its own lasts.

Lasts differ

A shoe is built around a last, and an EU size is the length of the last in Paris points, not the length of your foot. The last is typically longer than the foot by about 2 to 2.5 Paris points, and how much room a brand leaves is a design decision. Two shoes with the same EU number can be built for slightly different feet.

Men's and women's sizes: the gap is not always 1.5

Two conventions are in use in the US. On one scale a women's size is the men's size plus 1; on the more common one it is the men's size plus 1.5. On the charts we have checked, adidas, Arcteryx and La Sportiva print the women's size 1 above the men's; 6 brands including Merrell and Mizuno print the women's size 1.5 above the men's; VEJA Campo prints the women's size 2 above the men's. This matters when you buy a unisex shoe or a men's colourway: apply the offset from that brand's chart, not the one you remember from another brand.

UK sizes move too

A US women's 8 is UK 5 at Golden Goose and Skechers and UK 6.5 at 4 brands including adidas and Arcteryx. If you shop in the UK by the size you wear in one brand, you can land half a size or a full size off in another.

Buy by centimetres or JP size when the brand publishes it

Japanese shoe sizes are foot lengths in centimetres, and sports shoe labels typically carry four sizes: US, UK, EU and a centimetre or millimetre figure. That last one is the closest thing to a common unit: it describes length directly, without a rounding step into barleycorns or Paris points.

It is still the brand's own figure. At US women's 8, the charts below run from 24.1 cm (Clarks) to 25 cm (14 brands including adidas and Allbirds). adidas, Golden Goose and VEJA even print two lengths for the same shoe, a foot length and a JP size, and they are not the same number. Compare your foot with the centimetre column of the brand you are buying and nothing else.

To get your own number, stand on paper with your heel against a wall, mark the longest toe, and measure both feet. Our measuring guide walks through it.