How to find the right size for your barefoot shoes

Don’t measure at all! Or ask the other way around: A bucket is 25 cm tall. How much water can it hold? Feet are three-dimensional, and so are barefoot shoes. Just like a bucket, our shoes contain a three-dimensional space. If you want to calculate the correct size of your feet, you would have to place your feet in this bucket and measure how much water they displace. But then we would need to state shoe sizes in cubic centimeters. And then you’d have to state the length, height and width additionally. Plus your feet swell up over the course of a day. More so when you’re walking than when you’re sitting at a desk. More in summer than in winter. So your feet have different sizes in the morning and evening. As you see, it’s sort of complicated with your shoes. So make it simple: Should your barefoot shoes not fit as expected, just return them and get a new size. Of course, return shipping is simple and free of charge. Changing the size of your barefoot shoes is also easy. Just call or e-mail us, and our workshop machinery starts working just for you right away.

1. Therapist’s tip:

There are many wrong ways on how to find out if a shoe fits a foot. Fixed sizes are the worst. It’s like saying there should be 1.5 cm between your large toe and the front edge of the shoe. That’s nonsense. In a size 36, 1.5 cm can easily be two full sizes, because the length difference between two sizes is about 7 mm. It’s almost torture, if a woman wears size 36 and is supposed to buy size 38. And the length, width and height also change from size to size. Test yourself: Lift your bare foot and then place it flat on the ground. Does your foot suddenly get 1.5 cm longer? Or 1 cm wider or higher? No? See? Try before you buy.

Feet don’t change their length a lot. Sometimes the connective tissue shifts and the ligaments slacken a little – IF your feet are really healthy. A flat foot, for example, has already slackened (or given up). If you have high arches, they can’t slacken at all. They have too much tension. By the way, just between the two of us: Foot problems usually aren’t problems of the feet. The causes are mostly in the lower and upper thighs. That’s where the muscles moving our feet are. So it really makes no sense to wear inserts. Instead, you would need to bandage your lower thighs. At least then you’d show your surroundings that you have some sense of anatomy and physiology. By the way, here you can download a small booklet about feet from our shop for free.

If you really want to change your feet for the better, you need to change how you use your legs and learn to follow your physiology. The best method is forefoot walking. And walking with no shoes at all. But since we are just former African animals not really accustomed to our climate (or do you grow winter fur?), we need to wear shoes when it’s cold. Also for certain social events. Getting a loan while barefoot is somewhat of a challenge. So if you really need to wear shoes, at least you should keep the damage small and wear barefoot shoes. And if you have the choice, wear Senmotic barefoot shoes.

If your feet really did extend, you would need to hear a sliding noise and could probably never stand properly. After all, the supporting points of the heel and forefoot would be moving away from each other, while you are standing still. And even more, if you suddenly stood on one leg, because then the other foot would need to bear more weight. Since when do your feet make sliding or scratching sounds when touching the ground?

2. Therapist’s tip:

Put on your barefoot shoes, slide your toes all the way to the front. No more than your pinkie finger should now fit between your heel and the heel cap of the shoe. If you need force to squeeze in your pinkie, the shoe is too small. If you can fit your index finger between your heel and the heel cap, the shoes are too large. It’s OK if there is a slight difference between your feet.