jaune_chat | Shoes and Shopping

So, we're going on a trip to the UK in a week (unfortunately this is for my father-in-law's funeral). We were doing some last-minute errands - banking, getting out some UK pounds, picking up some gifts, etc. The last thing I needed was some shoes. Specifically I wanted slip-on shoes that looked dressy, but had better walking soles and arch support than your typical woman's flats. There are quite a few of that style of shoes available (I saw well over two dozen while looking in the mall), but there's a problem.

I wear a women's size 13. For those not conversant in American sizes, that's damn big for a women, approaching upper-mid range for men. A lot of women's shoe manufacturers don't produce shoes above a size 8.
Most don't go above 10 or 11. Maybe 12 if you're lucky. Even in high school (from ages 14-18) I was wearing anywhere from a 10-12. If I wanted dress shoes, I would go to a store that sold shoes by size, and then go to my size section. There would be about 10 or fewer choices, usually fewer, in all possible styles (ranging from slippers to heels to sneakers). I usually had a choice of one or two that were the style I needed. Shoe shopping thus took me about 15 minutes, including getting a parking space and driving off again.

But my foot size has gone up slightly since high school. And no store, not one out of the six or seven I looked in yesterday, had a woman's slip-on shoe in the "looks dressy but are practical for standing/walking" in my size. Sure, I could order them, but no one could get them in less than a week. And yes, I could have gone shopping earlier to get these particular type of shoes because I know the women's shoe industry thinks that anyone over a size 8 is a freak of nature, but I really hadn't had time to hit the mall in the middle of the day. The last store I went to didn't even offer to order, because they didn't even order anything above a size 12.

I ended up getting men's shoes instead, the same as I do when buying sneakers. They're supportive and have a nice thick sole with tread, but they're heavy and leather and really don't look anything like the shoes I wanted. But I needed them because with an old ankle injury I can't stand around in non-supportive flats for long hours. And I can't attend all the necessarily family visits and so forth wearing sneakers.

I am just very irritated at the women's shoe industry for making it impossible to shop in a normal store if you're outside the range of "acceptable sizes". Well, I'm irritated at the women's fashion industry in general, but at least there's a few stores where I can actually try the clothes on first.