Nearly one-third of women find that standard size shoes are not wide enough for their feet, a new survey* reveals.
The poll, believed to be the first of its kind in the UK was carried out on behalf of the UK’s leading designer of fashionable footwear for women with wider feet and calves Emotion. It reported that of the women asked 31 per cent said that when buying shoes they found them too narrow.
Similarly, of those women who buy high-leg boots, 23 per cent said that the calves were too narrow.
One of the reasons behind these results, claims Emotion, is that the general fitting of shoes and boots for adults has not changed at all over the past five decades.
"Most footwear is still made on a C fitting last," explains the company’s national sales manager Neil Bennett. "Emotion is one of the few companies in the footwear industry that has kept up with the changing body shape of women, who are significantly taller and heavier today than their 1950s’ counterparts."
As a result, Emotion reports that compared with this time last year forward sales for its autumn/winter range are up by 75 per cent. In addition, there is a significant increase in new accounts.
Mr Bennett adds: "There is a growing demand for fashionable footwear for women with wider feet and calves, which more and more buyers and retailers are recognising. The results of the survey support this."
Importantly, unlike some other companies, Emotion does not just take fashion footwear and make it wider. It actually designs and makes fashionable shoes and boots specifically for the wider foot and calf. This means that in some instances Emotion shoes provide a total girth circumference of up to 30mm larger than a standard shoe.
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