How Should Dress Shoes Fit? This is one question that any young man has asked someone for at some point in time in their life. As far as these dress shoes are concerned, the fit is always the most important thing. It is the complete opposite of sneakers where you can afford to give and take a few inches.
Best Men’s Dress Shoes
Dress shoes are something which is almost always worn with formals. As such, getting them to fit perfectly is a must. They must be perfectly molded to the shape of your feet. To put it in short, it must feel like an extension of your feet rather than an extra accessory.
How Should Dress Shoes Fit? – Size
- So the first thing that you need to know if you are asking how should dress shoes fit? is the exact size of your feet. This is something around 80% of customers are not aware of themselves. Here are some ways of telling if a pair of shoes actually fit you or not.
- The first way to tell if a shoe is a misfit for you is by noticing the creases in the wrong places. In such a scenario, your foot will tend to bend the shoe in places it was not meant to, thus creating unwanted cracks.
- If a shoe does not fit you well, you may even find yourself tripping over continuously. That would never happen for a well-fitting shoe.
- The area of your foot between the arch and the toes, which is the widest portion, will also not be aligned with the part of your shoe which is widest. This usually means that the length of your shoe is messed up.
- The “wings” of your shoe, or the place where the laces are looped through touch each other when it is tied. This means that the shoes are too big for your feet.
- If your feet feel like it is flopping around on the inside, it obviously means that the shoe is far too big compared to your feet. Your feet must be snug inside the shoe instead of having too much room to move about.
How Should Dress Shoes Fit? – Trying Out Shoes
Another thing, which you need to keep in mind when trying to know how should dress shoes fit? is how to test out the shoes when trying them on. If you are not aware of the key elements to look out for, here are some of them:
Length
The trick to judging the length of a shoe is pretty simple. If you happen to feel any sort of pressing against your toenails, it means that it is too short. Even if it is just grazing the front of the shoe, you should consider getting another size.
That is because when walking, your toes will rub against the shoe and if that happens on a continuous basis, you will experience a lot of pain. In such a scenario, going up by half a size usually gets the job done. If it’s a shoe that you got to have you can buy the best shoe stretchers for length and width stretching. If that does not work, it probably means that you are having issues with the style of the shoe rather than anything else.
Width
This is pretty similar to the point made above. To put it simply, if the shoe is putting excessive pressure on the sides of your feet, it probably means that it is short in width. You can apply the same logic as that involved in having a shoe of excessive length.
Reducing the width by half a size usually gets the job done right for you. At the same time, when laced up, there should not be too much space on the sides for your foot to move about in. That indicates a shoe that is too big for you. Likewise, go down by half a size.
When it comes to width size, the average man has a D sized width. Most brands do not specify them, but if you need to know, then this is it. Also, make a note of the fact that the D width varies from company to company so take care to know about the differences.
- B – Narrow Width
- E – Wide Width
- 3E – X-Wide Width
Heels
After getting the length and width of the shoe in place, the question of how should dress shoes fit? is mostly answered. However, checking the heel is also an important thing that you must not forget to do when trying out a new shoe.
To make things simple, just lace up your shoes and walk around a bit in them. If the shoe fits perfectly, there should be no slippage as far as the heel is concerned. If however, there is a slippage, you will soon find blisters which can be really painful.
Also, the sole of some shoes can have an open stitch or seam on it which feel extremely annoying when you rub your feet against them. If your shoe is also like that, make sure to avoid getting them.
How Should Dress Shoes Fit? – Material
Last but not the least, when looking for the answer to “how should dress shoes fit?” always takes into account the quality of the leather or whatever the material used for making the shoe. Always try to avoid leather which have a really high glossy look to them and look patent, because in most of the cases, they are not.
Most of these materials turn out to be subpar and give way to crack and crevices in the future. If you want something in the upper echelons of the shoe market, then you are probably looking for French calfskin. It is the most popular material in the market because of its durability. Using a long shoe horn will help fitting and removal of fine leather shoes.
To Conclude
So there you have it. This is pretty much everything you need to know when it comes to the fit of your dress shoe. So the next time you need the answer to how should dress shoes fit? keep the above things in mind.