A common suggestion to asses the fit of a shoe, and something that many people use regularly, is about placing a finger between the heel of the foot and the inside back of the shoe. But the info you get from this is more or less useless and doesn’t give any relevant information. Here’s why.
For online shoe retailers, a very common email to receive from customers go something like this: “I tried on the shoes and they are too big for me. I can fit a finger in the back of the heel. Should I go down 0,5 or 1 full size to get it right?”. Or similar. It’s impossible to give any proper feedback on something like that, those who state they can do that is just fooling themselves and because they sometime might have got lucky think it works. I don’t blame the shoe customers here though, they’ve often learned this process from someone else, not seldom “guide websites” or YouTube videos etc. (Another weird advice is that one should be able to insert a finger in the back, if the shoes fit right, which says just as little, but we don’t focus on this one here.)
This is not a way to assess fit in any way. Picture: Bespoke Unit
Surely, if you can move your foot forward easily and get a gap in the back, especially if the shoes are laced tightly or it’s loafers, it might mean that they are too big. But it can also be due to the instep being too high for your feet and fit otherwise is right (and you can fix it with tongue pads), that you haven’t laced them properly (and as soon as you do this they are alright), or a number of other things. If the shape is wrong for you even if you go down in size they won’t fit well. Or they are indeed a bit big, but by how much is very difficult to say based on that type of info. Even in my best fitting bespoke shoes, if I don’t pull laces properly, I can still push my feet forward in them if I try to, same in loafers that actually fit well, if I press the feet forward with enough force I will get a gap in the back.
But since a shoe is always intended to have the heel against the back, it’s only by having the feet that way you have the chance to do any proper assessment of fit. And when you do this, the most important thing when it comes to fit is that the ball of your foot, the place where the foot bends, should be placed correctly at the widest part of the shoe, the flex point. This way your foot will be placed correctly in the shoe, you will have the arch placed right and when the foot bends it does so in the right way. And how much space you have in front of your toes doesn’t have anything to do with fit, as long as you don’t touch the front everything can be correct. Very round toe boxes even less than 1 cm space in front can be right, for very pointy toes maybe 4-5 cm space is right. Toe shape and hence space in front of the toes is just design / aesthetics, not fit.
The ball needs to be placed correctly in the foot.
Here you’ll find more articles about shoes and fit.
This article offers a refreshing perspective on shoe fitting—it’s great to see advice that challenges conventional wisdom. Understanding that finger space behind the heel isn’t always a reliable indicator of fit is crucial. For those interested in exploring how different shoe types should fit and feel, Designcruze has a comprehensive guide that delves into this topic: The Ultimate Guide to Different Types of Shoes. It’s a valuable resource for anyone looking to make informed choices about their footwear.
Understanding toe anatomy really highlights how much work these small structures handle every day. The alignment of the joints, tendons, and ligaments plays a bigger role in balance and movement than most people realize. Even minor changes in how the toes function can affect posture and overall comfort