The Complete Guide to Understanding Wide Fit Shoes
Here at Gabor Shoes, we know how difficult it can be to find a pair of shoes that offers the perfect fit for you, which is why we’re constantly looking to bring you the most useful and up to date information about all things footwear, making it easier than ever to purchase that pair you’ve had your eye on with confidence.
One particular subject that we are often asked a lot of questions about is wide fit shoes. While they provide an entirely different fit in comparison to a standard shoe, it may not always be obvious as to what those differences are. We’ve put together a complete guide all about how to understand wide fit shoes, how standard UK widths compare as well as how to pick the right size of Gabor wide fit shoes for you. If you’ve ever spent time wondering ‘what is a wide fit shoe?’ or ‘how wide is a wide fit shoe anyway?’, our guide is here to answer your questions and put your mind at ease when it comes to buying wide fit shoes.
What is a Wide Fit Shoe?
In a nutshell, a wide fit shoe is designed with a larger amount of available room for the foot in comparison to standard shoe sizing. Most of the time, they feature wider and deeper sections to accommodate the toes, as well as more room up around the instep, which gives feet of all shapes and sizes the space they need to feel comfortable and supported. The wider and deeper toe sections allow an individual’s toes to spread out naturally and evenly with each step, making it much easier to avoid that uncomfortable pinching and squeezing sensation that is commonly experienced when a person is wearing narrow or standard-fitting shoes despite having wider feet. Ultimately, they make for a much more pleasant experience when worn, and allow the wearer to avoid discomfort with ease. The sizing of wide fit shoes is typically indicated in a slightly different way to the standard shoe, so when you’re shopping for a wider fit, it’s important to know the most suitable width for you. Most often, they are indicated as a letter or a series of letters, with the most popular ones being C, D, E, EE and EEE. However, this can occasionally vary from brand to brand, so your width fitting may not always be the same across all manufacturers. For example, here at Gabor Shoes, we use the German version of width fitting, which consists of the letters F, G and H, and we have converted this to the UK equivalent on our website. You can find out more about our specific wide fit sizing further on in this guide.
How Wide are Wide Fit Shoes?
The width of wide fit shoes tends to vary depending on the shoe size, so unfortunately it is impossible for us to put an exact standard figure on how wide a certain wide fit shoe might be, however, we can offer examples to make things a little easier. Here at Gabor Shoes, our H (extra wide) shoes will be wider in a larger size shoe than in a smaller size shoe, and this size difference is generally the case across all of our wide fit shoes. Put simply, though, the average width of a UK size 6 female shoe is around 9cm, which is in line with a standard shoe width fitting. Wide fit shoes, on the other hand, will usually measure in the region of 10cm in width, while extra-wide fit shoes will measure around 11cm across or more. If you are unsure of what your size might be, you can easily measure the width of your feet with a tape measure or ruler. To do this correctly, simply measure across the widest part of your foot, which is usually just below the toes, and opt for a shoe that is slightly wider than your measurement to ensure a comfortable fit.How do Gabor Wide Fit Shoes Compare to other Brands?
We previously mentioned that here at Gabor Shoes, we use slightly different wide fit width codes than other UK manufacturers. Here is a simple table displaying codes alongside the fit that they provide, to help our customers to understand our system so that you can find the right width to suit your feet.| UK Width | Gabor Width | Fitting Description |
| C+ | F | Standard Fit |
| D | G | Wide Fit |
| D+ or EE | H | Extra Wide Fit |
