How do I measure my feet for barefoot shoes? 

Learn how to measure your feet for ordering barefoot shoes online.

One of the biggest mistakes people make when switching to barefoot shoes is buying a shoe that is too small. This post will explain how to measure your feet and so you can have more success ordering barefoot shoes online. 

Most people don’t have a brick and mortar store accessible where they can try on different barefoot shoe brands, so most purchases are made online. It can be a process of trial and error to figure out what brands and sizes fit your feet best. While every purchase may not be a perfect fit, getting an accurate foot measurement will give you the best chance of ordering your correct size. 

Why is it so hard to get the correct shoe size? 

Getting the correct shoe size has been a problem that’s plagued me long before I started wearing barefoot shoes.

If there’s one thing shoe brands are not, it’s consistent about sizing.

You may be tempted to just order your regular size, but even before switching to barefoot shoes my sizes range from 6.5 to 8.5 depending on the brand and style. 

I usually avoided buying shoes online for that very reason. It was so much easier to go in-store to try on my expected size, and maybe a size up or down to see which one was the best fit. 

Even with trying on in-store, sometimes none of the sizes were a good fit. That’s because not every shoe will fit every foot. Finding the right fit isn’t just about getting the right length and making sure it’s wide enough. Other aspects of our feet, like shape, instep height, and heel width all go into whether a shoe fits or not. 

Your barefoot shoe size may vary from the size you’ve previously been wearing in conventional shoes. It may also vary from brand to brand and even style to style. This has been true for me both in conventional shoes brands and barefoot shoe brands. 

Unfortunately, consistency in sizing isn’t the shoe industry’s strong suit. In a recent study about shoe sizing, researchers matched 90,000 3D foot scans with the shoe style and size the customer purchased. They found that about 40% of the shoe styles did not fit true to the labeled size. 

Barefoot shoe brands tend to do a little better in that many offer more detailed size charts that list both length and width measurements for their insoles in each size. Using this information and comparing it to your own length and width measurement will give you a much better chance at determining your correct shoe size before buying online. In my barefoot shoe reviews, I also try and include reference points including my experience with the fit of the shoes. 

In this post, I’ll cover how to measure your feet for barefoot shoes, including foot length, width, and volume.  

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Tips for Measuring your Feet

Measure the length and width of both feet. Most people’s feet are slightly different lengths and widths. Use your longest and widest measurements as your point of reference. 

The best time to measure your feet is typically at the end of the day, when they are at their largest.  

If you’re planning on wearing socks, measure your feet using the socks you’ll be wearing for the particular shoes you’re planning on purchasing to get a more accurate measurement. For example, measure your feet with your everyday/warm weather socks when you’re buying sneakers. Remeasure your feet wearing your thicker winter socks when you’re planning on buying winter boots. 

Periodically re-measure your feet. Your feet will likely change over the years, and many people see their foot length and width increase after switching to barefoot shoes. When feet are no longer compressed in shoes that are too small and too narrow, they often spread out and grow a little in both length and width. Some people find that they may want to go up a size or two after their initial few months wearing barefoot shoes. 

Some barefoot brands have printable size guides, which can be very helpful too. When printing the guides, make sure the print size is set to 100%. Sometimes a printer will default to a different size, like printing to scale, which makes the printable guide completely inaccurate. I would still measure your feet separately and compare them to the insole measurements, if listed. 

Steps for measuring the length of your feet

The easiest and most accurate method I’ve used to measure my feet to get the correct shoe size is the wall method. 

1 Measure your feet on hard, flat flooring that meets a wall. Place a piece of paper against the wall.   

2 Place the heel of your foot against the wall and set it on the piece of paper. Make sure you have your full weight on your foot. Place something straight and about an inch or so high (like a thick, hardback book) at the end of your longest toe. This will usually be your big toe or your second toe. Mark the line where the book meets your toe.   

3 Measure from the wall to the mark. I typically measure in centimeters as it’s a smaller unit of measurement and many barefoot shoe companies list insole measurements in cm.   

4 Repeat for the second foot. Use the longer measurement for your size reference.   

Steps for measuring the width of your feet

1 While you’re measuring the length, mark your foot on both sides at its widest point at the ball of the foot. The points should make a horizontal line across your foot through the metatarsal joints when connected, perpendicular to the axis of the foot. 

2 If you have hallux valgus (bunion), make sure your width measurement includes this. The toe box of your shoe should not be putting pressure on your bunion.  

Determine your ideal insole measurements

Now that you have an accurate foot measurement, it’s time to determine your ideal insole measurements.

Add about 0.5cm to 1.2cm to your foot length measurement to determine the correct insole length. I almost always add 1.2cm for closed toe shoes, but use closer to 0.5cm for sandals.

If the shoes have a thicker inner lining for winter or a waterproof membrane, I consider sizing up as these take up space and the insole measurements often don’t adjust for the lining or membrane.

For example, with my 23.3cm foot measurement, I look for closed-toe shoes with an insole length around 24.5cm.  

You will also want to add about 0.3cm to 0.4cm to your width measurement, so I typically look for shoes with a width around 9.4cm.

Compare your measurements to the brand’s size chart

Most brands list the insole measurement on the size chart, but some (like Lems) give you a size recommendation based on your foot length. Just keep that in mind when looking at the size chart — are the lengths the actual insole length, or the recommended foot length?

On the size chart below, I selected a size EU 38 based on my foot length of 23.3 cm and foot width of 9 cm. As mentioned above, my foot measurement plus 1.2cm is 24.5cm, which is the insole length of the size EU38. My foot width also fits well with the size, so it looks like this brand will be a good fit for my foot.

If your foot width is wider than the appropriate size based on length, then you may want to consider a different barefoot shoe brand. While barefoot shoe brands do have wider toe boxes, they still vary from brand to brand, and it’s important to find the brands that fit your feet best. Our shoes need to be both long enough and wide enough so that are feet are comfortable and we can walk naturally.

Using printable size templates from the brand

Some barefoot shoe brands provide a printable size template to help you determine the correct shoe size. These can be very helpful, and I recommend using these when possible. However, I would still always compare your foot measurements for both length and width to the size chart. Most size templates only give an accurate measurement for length, not width, so it’s especially important to double check on the width. 

Printable templates can be particularly helpful for sandals with in between the toe straps as they mark the strap post on the template. These can help you determine if that particular sandal has the post in an ideal spot for your toe length and overall foot length.  

When you do use a printable template, ensure that you’re printing at 100%. Most templates have a check with a credit card so you know you haven’t accidentally printed at the wrong scale.  

Consider Your Foot Volume/Instep Height

Even if you try on a shoe that is the ideal length and width for your foot, you may find that the overall shoe still isn’t a great fit. Your foot volume or instep height is also an important part of shoe fit. It’s helpful to understand whether you have low, medium, or high volume feet.  

Foot volume is essentially how much space your foot takes up. You can measure it by measuring your instep from the floor to the top of your foot. The height of your arch is somewhat independent from your foot volume — that is to say, you can have a low arch, but have high, low or medium volume feet. You can have a high arch, but have medium or high volume feet (it’s less likely to have low volume feet with a high arch as the higher the arch, the taller your foot will be). 

Low volume: If you have low volume feet, you may find yourself tightening your laces down or have extra space on top when you wear slip ons. Barefoot brands like Vivobarefoot, Splay, and Tolos are well-suited for low volume feet. To adjust shoes to better fit low volume feet, try adding an extra insole (like one of these), or use tongue pads in slip-ons.

High volume: If you have high volume feet, you may find yourself loosening your shoe laces to create more space for your foot, or many slip-on type shoes put pressure on the top of your foot. Barefoot brands like Bohempia, Feelgrounds Droptop, Feelbarefoot Slip-ons, or Altra Running shoes are ideal for high volume feet.

Medium volume: If you have medium volume feet, then you likely aren’t at one extreme or the other, and most shoes will fit your foot volume without adjustments.

In the scan of my feet below, my arches are higher than average, which leads to my feet having a slightly higher than average instep. While I wouldn’t say I have super high volume feet, I do notice that when I try on some shoes, it feels tight across the top of my foot. Generally I’m most comfortable in shoes that are made for medium volume feet.

Get a 3D foot scan

Measuring your feet at home is totally doable, but it may be worth getting a super accurate measurement with a foot scan. I recently got one at a local running shoe store and it was really insightful. A 3D foot scan from a company like Volumental not only generates accurate measurements, but also shows you how you compare to the larger population based on thousands of other scans. In addition to my foot length, width and volume are important things to consider when trying to find shoes with the most comfortable fit for you.

For example, I can see that I have an average width foot, a narrow heel, and a higher instep compared to the hundreds of thousands of people they’ve gathered measurements from. While a relative metric like low, medium or high is not the same as getting an absolute measurement, it is helpful as a heads up that you may have a harder time finding a perfect fit if you fall on either ends of the spectrum.

Most shoe brands (barefoot brands included) are often aiming to fit people in the medium bucket in hopes that their shoes will fit the most people, but there is still a range fits out there. In my barefoot shoe reviews, I try to share if shoes fit low, medium or high width and volume.