Big-shoe shoppers in a bind
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Something is afoot with American feet: They average a full size larger
than they did 15 years ago. Retailers who have kept pace with that trend
have stepped into a profitable niche.
By Rachel Osterman
Tribune staff reporter
July 12, 2003
On Michigan Avenue Friday, Bonita Patrick plucked a pair of black sandals
from a Parade of Shoes shelf. "Ooh, that's nice," she cooed. But when she
checked if they had a size 10, she was out of luck.
Teenager Amanda Brogan, meanwhile, sometimes spends entire Saturdays
cruising footwear outlets near her suburban Boston home. Her goal is to
finish the day with a pair of trendy shoes--in a size 12.
"There's never anything that actually fits that doesn't make my feet look
like golf shoes," the 14-year-old complained.
Across the country, Americans are fighting the battle of the bulging foot.
Put simply, the country's feet appear to be getting bigger. Some surveys
calculate that feet have grown an average of a full size larger within just
15 years. And unlike in the apparel industry, where stores have sprung up
everywhere to dress the nation's expanding waistline, shoe retailers and
manufacturers have been slow to respond.
"A lot of stores haven't recognized the change," said Marshal Cohen, a
senior footwear analyst at NPD Group, a market information company.
No one can quite put a finger on how much bigger the country's feet have
become. Part of the problem is that the government, which measures
everything from Americans' elbow size to their shoulder width, doesn't keep
track of foot size. Nor do podiatry associations. And shoe retailers can
only measure what they sell.
But almost everyone who works with feet has noticed this trend: 15 years
ago, the most popular size in women's shoes was a 7 1/2. Now it's an 8 1/2
and sometimes a 9. In men's, an equivalent jump has taken place: whereas 9
1/2 used to be retailers' core, that figure is now around 10 1/2.
A study by NPD confirmed the same growth. In 1987, only 11 percent of
women wore a size 9 or higher. Today, 37 percent do.
Of course, foot expansion has always been part of the generational march
forward. In 1900, the average American male wore a 6 1/2, and the average
woman wore a 4 1/2, according to podiatrist William Rossi, author of "The
Professional Shoe Fitting Manual." Just more than 100 years later, it's
around four sizes larger for both sexes.
But the rate of change is much faster than before. As to why that's
happening, medical experts offer several reasons.
For one, nutrition is better than in the past. For the same reason that
America is taller now than 30 years ago, feet are stretching. At the same
time, growth hormones fed to cattle and other animals could be having an
elongating effect, said Dr. Lyle Haskell, an Austin, Texas podiatrist.
Another factor is obesity. Americans' increasing weight causes the arches
in their feet to expand outwards.
"If you are heavier than would be ideal, and we have evidence that there
is a large obesity problem in the United States, that adds to the speed with
which the arch collapses," said Haskell.
For that same reason, overweight people often have wider feet, he said.
Industry watchers say it has taken sellers and manufacturers too long to
take note.
Because shoemakers and retailers can only gauge the popularity of what
they sell, they don't know the demand for what they don't stock on their
shelves.
"When size 9 is the most popular women's size, and the traditional buyer
only buys a few size 9's in the assortment mix, that sells out really
quickly," NPD's Cohen said.
Cohen calculated that if the shoe industry simply sold and made larger
sizes, it could boost revenue by 8 percent.
For Nordstrom, offering a variety of widths and sizes has long been part
of its business strategy. Even so, the high-end retailer has noticed that
today's buyers have bigger feet.
"It's not uncommon for 9 to be one of our best-selling sizes," said Jack
Minuk, Nordstrom's head of women's shoes.
But for manufacturers that supply shoes, there is not enough data to
support making more large sizes.
"We can't afford to make shoes that we don't know there's demand for,"
said Scott Williams, vice president for sales at Drew Shoe Co., a
manufacturer based in St. Louis.
Another obstacle to stores' adjusting has to do with warehousing. A larger
range of sizes means more inventory. And more inventory means the risk of
not selling a greater number of shoes.
Another factor that keeps many large-size shoes off American shelves is
location. Most shoes are manufactured in China, Taiwan and other distant
locales. Because of the production shift, it takes a month for sellers to
receive orders, according to Fawn Evenson, president of the footwear
division of the American Apparel and Footwear Association.
As a result, retailers are often more hesitant to re-supply sold-out lines
than when shoes were manufactured closer to home.
"After a month, the season is already half over," Cohen said.
So when a size 10 has sold out, it has likely sold out for good.
But shoe outlets that respond to America's expanding feet have found a
profitable niche.
One beneficiary of America's large feet is Barbara Thornton, a Boston
resident who wears a size 11 1/2.
"We believed there was a market for stores that sell large-size shoes,
just based on what I had experienced in my life with my friends and my
daughter and her friends," Thornton said.
In 1997, Thornton created DesignerShoes.com, a Web site that specializes
in offering fashionable women's shoes in large sizes.
"The footwear industry isn't paying any attention to it, and it's very
astonishing to me," Thornton said. "We have so many people who come into our
business, either on the phone or e-mail or into our store (in Boston), who
tell stories about how they just grew up in tears in department stores when
they couldn't find their size."
For many shoppers, the struggle continues.
"With nice shoes, it's hard to find a size 10. You either can't find it,
or you get something unfeminine or bulky. They just look like boats," said
Patrick, still looking for stylish black sandals.