My roommate literally walked in on me returning a pair of Nike Dunks I ordered in a “women’s 8.5.” He stood there while I wrestled the shoe back into its box so I could explain what was happening. I didn’t order the wrong size because Nike makes trash shoes. I ordered the wrong size because I knew my foot didn’t wear an 8.5, but our sizing system makes you label shoes by gender instead of… literally just putting the size on the shoe. He judged me while I repackaged a brand new sneaker that was completely ripped free of dust as if I were performing brain surgery and said “wait so you could’ve just kept them?” and yeaaaaaaah… that’s the article right there. My roommate was right and I hate him for it.
The label is doing way more cognitive work than it needs to
A lot of people miss this lesson when they start getting into sneakers: when Nike says “women’s shoe” it doesn’t actually mean that shoe was built specifically for the female body. For the majority of their line, a “men’s” and “women’s” shoe is the exact same shoe on the exact same last simply shifted over on a size chart.
Nike doesn’t make women’s shoes smaller for no reason, they literally use the same sizing for both but shift the labels so that a women’s 8.5 is roughly a men’s 7. That’s it! Nothing else! Nike doesn’t secretly shape their women’s shoes to fit better, or hide special women’s-only support systems inside the midsole. They just change the label.
Now, that’s not to say that certain shoes don’t sometimes get built on a women’s specific last — certain Nike runs (usually performance stuff like running and training) will adjust fit and width based on Nike’s compiled foot scans — just that the Air Force 1 dresses the same, regardless of whether it’s hanging in men’s or women’s clothing sections.
So when your boy is telling me he “can’t” buy something because “that shit’s in the womens’ section bro,” he’s telling me that he inherently trusts a label more than he trusts his own eyes. Look, I was this guy too. My poor fellow interns would listen to me rant about some ridiculous color dropping “in women’s” only for me to putiterate how upset I was about women having the first dibs on colorways while Nike’s website quietly transferred those same exact shoes from the mens’ drop page to women’s under the cover of darkness. There’s nothing going to come to my house. All Nike did was slap a gendered heading on a size chart and you fell for it.
This also matters way more now than it used to because that’s where Nike is putting all the good stuff. We’re talking fun colorways, we’re talking pastels, we’re talking collaborations that actually sell out. There’s a reason that if you want to keep your_Grid_IQ feed filled with stuff you actually like you need to check both sections, because more and more shoes are dropping in women’s sizes first or exclusively. Cursed Marcus (not my roommate this time) text me about a Dark Jade Air Jordan 4 once that he wanted and somehow thought disappeared from the face of the earth because the men’s page wasn’t showing it, not realizing it’s right there! Same sneaker, just under women’s now. Size convert and you can still buy it. Took me sending that very advice his way to realize he actually did know what he was talking about. Literally bought two pairs that day. Guys are sleeping on shoes they would’ve rocked just because of awebsite.
The only thing that matters is fit, and fit has nothing to do with gender
Fair enough, but if the labels are bullshit, what does matter? Fit. Boys and girls, nothing else matters. The fit isn’t changed by what Nike calls the shoe. The fit is the same on both sides of the drop. What changes with Nike’s system is the size number that you need to get that correct fit. Nike’s women’s line, on silhouettes that they share a last with the men’s side of things, runs approximately a size and a half smaller than its “mens” counterpart wearing the exact same shoe. Men’s 9 = women’s 10.5. Number crunch correctly and what you’ll find is that you aren’t trying to jam your foot into a smaller sneaker, you’re literally just finding the same shoe listed under a different number that fits the exact same.
The only time guys get screwed is when they ignore the conversion and guess. I did this too guys! Thought I was getting a “women’s 9” near the beginning of my sneaker journey because 9 was “close to my size.” Figured since they ran small I’d be fine. Big. Fat. Willy Wonka-esq Guess. Was way too loose because I didn’t take the time to actually do the size conversion and assumed it was closer to my size because it was labeled as a women’s. That’s on me, not Nike. Nike just wants you to do the math so they can sell you shoes. Convert right and the only difference between the shoes you find in men’s versus women’s is the section it came from when it dropped.
Alright, there is one instance where the women’s build does matter, and I’m going to be honest with you guys instead of pretending it doesn’t make a difference. Women’s Nike shoes that are actually built on a women’s last (again, usually happens with running and trainers) can run slightly narrower through the midfoot. If you have particularly wide feet this is something that you’ll want to pay attention to before buying. But this is not an Across Cultures episode where I’m telling you to avoid women’s shoes altogether. It’s simply a suggestion to do your research on that specific shoe.
Maybe read a review or something. Nothing more! If the shoe does run narrower on a women’s specific build than you know what to do, keep looking. Doesn’t mean you can’t buy it at all, maybe that specific shoe just doesn’t work with the shape of your foot. Actual fit issue. Doesn’t give you an excuse to ignore an entire section of shoes.
Moral of the story, and I say this knowing full well that I’ve personally returned and repurchased shoes from Nike because I didn’t understand their stupid size chart: The label wasn’t stopping you. Your brain was. Let me Google how to properly size convert next time.
Jamie is in his early twenties, lives in Manchester and makes menswear content for a living. He writes about whatever’s actually trending this week, fast and a bit chaotic, and he’ll happily tell you when he got it wrong.
