Clarification About Shoe Width Dates

jauntyrooster

jauntyrooster

Alumni
I found this in the VFG Tips & Tricks section about dating vintage shoes:

■Vintage shoes will be sized for width AAAA – DDD. i.e.: 1940s platforms will be marked for size with A – D – 1970s will be med, narrow wide.

Does this mean that they did not start using M, N, & W until the 1970s?

Can I assume that some companies still use A-D and other M, N, & W but that if it is M, N or W it is 1970s or newer?

Just want to make sure I am reading the information correctly.

Thanks!
Maureen
 
Essentially yes. I am not swearing to it though because I am sure there are exceptions to the rule, however I believe this is almost always the case.
 
Thanks Jonathan - I appreciate your quick response. Sounds like it is a good rule of thumb understanding that there could be a few exceptions - isnt that always the case?

Maureen
 
One of the things I like about older shoes is that in addition to having what seems to be more widths available, you could get one width in the foot area, and another in the heel. I have (had, I should say) narrow feet and narrower heels, and I can remember buying shoes that were labeled A/AA (A width with ever narrower heels). Now I have a "B" or "M" foot, but still have narrower heels, and it's almost impossible to find a full shoe that I don't have to put heel pads in. So you might see several different variations of sizing in shoes older than the 70s, rather than just one width designation on the shoe.

Jonathan, do I recall correctly that, even among companies that did switch over (which it sounds as if the vast majority of them have done), some of them continued to use the more extensive alpha designations quite late into the 70s? I was organizing my too-many-pairs of shoes last evening (so this is timely!), and see a pair of Chandler's (very well made, btw, in Spain) that I'm pretty sure are late 70s, and they are 6 1/2 AA. Most of the 80's shoes I have are the N, B, W sizing, but I also have a pair of 80s shoes from Newton Elkin that are 8 1/2 AA.

Would it be a safe generalization (not a rule, of course), do you think, that shoe makers who did switch over had done so by around 1980, and and if you see shoes post that approximate time period with the old sizing are from makers who never did switch?
 
When there are two widths, one for the ball and one for the heel, it's called a combination last. High end ready-to-wear shoe retailers specialized in them. They were often made to order, but only to the standard last widths the shoe manufacturers had, so it was a sort of semi-bespoke shoe.

I believe European shoes still use the A-D width sizing. I think it was only American shoes that went to the W-M-N letters. Although European shoes made for the American market may also use the W-M-N sizing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top