Men's Shoe Size Conversion

Men's shoe size chart

Every row is one catalog size, aligned across the four systems. Read across from any column you know.

US and UK differ by exactly one size

Both the American and British scales are built on the barleycorn, an old English unit of one third of an inch, about 8.5 mm per size. Because they share that step, the men's offset is a clean plus one: a US 9 is a UK 8, a US 10.5 is a UK 9.5, all the way up with no half-size drift. The one caution is brand practice. The customary US-to-UK offset is only a quarter barleycorn, and different makers use anywhere from a quarter to a full barleycorn, so two brands can sit half a size apart at the same UK number.

Why the EU number pulls away

The European scale does not count the foot at all. It counts the last, the foot-shaped form a shoe is built on, in Paris points of two thirds of a centimetre, about 6.67 mm. That step is smaller than the barleycorn, so the gap between an EU number and its US equal widens as you go up: it is about 32 at the small end of the men's range and reaches 34 to 35 at the top. This is also why EU-to-centimetre charts from different sellers disagree by a few millimetres, since the last runs up to 1.5 cm longer than the foot and each maker adds a different amount.

What a typical men's foot measures

In an analysis of 1.2 million 3D foot scans across about thirty countries, the most common adult male foot length was 270 mm in North America and Europe, and shorter in Asia, near 255 mm. A 270 mm foot maps to EU 42 and US 9 on the chart above, which is why those sizes sell out first. If your own measurement lands far from 270 mm, measure again before assuming an unusual size.

The centimetre on the box is not your foot length

Nike, adidas and ASICS all print the same headline number on their Japanese charts: a US 9 men's shoe is a 27.0 cm size. But that label is the shoe, not the foot. Nike's own chart fits a 26.2 cm foot to its 27.0 cm size and adidas a 26.3 cm foot, so the label runs about 0.7 to 0.8 cm longer than the foot, built-in toe room. Match your measured foot length to a brand's fitted-foot column, not to the box number. Width is the larger real difference between brands: New Balance offers 2E and 4E men's fittings where most lines cut only a standard D, and those are a genuine girth change, not a longer shoe.

Frequently asked questions

Is a US 9 the same as a UK 9 in men's shoes?

No. A men's US 9 is a UK 8. The US number always sits one above the UK number for the same foot, so reading them as equal buys a shoe a full size too big.

What is EU 42 in US and UK for men?

EU 42 is a US 9 and a UK 8 in our catalog, built on a 270 mm foot, the most common adult male length. See the full EU to US chart for every size.

Do men's shoe sizes really vary by brand?

The headline centimetre barely moves between Nike, adidas and New Balance. What varies is width and the amount of toe room built into the last, which is why the same labelled size can feel different. The brand size guide shows the official numbers side by side.

Learn more: how to measure foot length, shoe width explained, and the printable foot measuring sheet.