One Year Later..Still Trying to Make the World a Better Place

As The Blob approaches it's first anniversary I can't help but glance back even as I look forward towards the year to come (may 6th to may 6th known as the Blobbal year). What has it all meant? All the ink spilled, the hours toiling alone raling against global injustice. Was I just howling into the wind like a lone wolf in the wilderness or in some small way did I make a difference? All the evidence points to meaningless howling but if it's good enough for a wolf it's good enough for me.


I've tackled the big issues with little regard for my own personal safety and after these many months can say that I may have made a rookie mistake by not aiming a little lower. As the great chef Brillat-Savarin once said "Yea, that most savourous loaf of bread is maedst of many small but delectiable crumbes." Allow me then to end the year fighting a small yet important battle, a minor skirmish amidst global conflagrations but a major annoyance nonetheless:


Towards a Rationalization of the Shoe Sizing System



The wayward fleet at right are known to those in the footwear industry as Brannock devices. We've all stuck our feet in them but few of us have any idea how they work and to what standards they adhere. I started asking a few basic questions and before long was led down a Byzantine path that is as convoluted and illogical as it is Byzantine, if not even slightly more Byzantine. I'll try to sort out this whole mess as briefly and simply as possible.

To begin with, several different sizing systems are used worldwide and in some regions different systems are used for different shoe types ( i.e men's ,women's, kid's, horse, sport, safety, cow, etc.)
Shoe size can be based on the length of the foot, the length of the inner cavity of the shoe, or the lenght of the form or last the shoe is created around. In Canada for instance the size is determined by the length of the last in inches multiplied by 3 and then minus a constant which will be different for men, women, and children and different again from country to country but sometimes just for men but not for women! Fascinating, eh?? (and stupid) There are even archaic terms such as the British barleycorn 1/3rd inch or the French Paris point or Paris prick (I kid you not) which is 2/3rds of a centimetre. There are international standards (mondo point), differing national standards and even more than one standard per country in rare cases.

Leave it to the Japanese though, their shoes are measured by centimetres and it's the same for men and women...period!! How simple is that? From here on in The Blob will refer to all shoe sizes using the Japanese Standard...I'm a size 29.5 for instance....and will gladly render this conversion service for any interested readers. As the influence of this site grows exponentially I believe that within few years N.America and Europe will go the Japanese route and the world will be the better for it.