WOMEN’S FEET.

Matamata Record, Volume VIII, Issue 597, 15 January 1925, Page 3

WOMEN’S FEET.

ARB THEY GROWING BIGGER?

“Women may not like it said, but it is unquestionably true that their feet are growing -larger.” This statement -was made to a Dominion reporter by a Wellington boot salesman who has been years in -the trade at Home and in New Zealand. The question arose through an inquiry for a pair of size 2 rubber shoes, and the difficulty the salesman had in readily supplying them.

“You may not know it,” lie said, "but we have very few inquiries nowadays for size 2’s, though I can remember when 13’s, l’s and 2’s were more in demand than any other size in ladies’ footwear. I have been in the boot sale trade now for over forty years, and have seen a good many changes. I remember when I was a very young man at Home the sizes most in demand for women’s boots —they were mostly high-legged boots worn then —were 13’s, l’s and 2’s. It all comes back to me, because at the time I mention there was a great demand for a very we-11-made boot which used to come to us from Australia, and I can remember after I had been in the trade some years, that the traveller who used to visit us complained that the sizes his firm used to specialise in were no longer in demand. By that time the popular sizes had increased to 2’s, 3’s and 4’s.”

“What do they want now?” asked the reporter.

“Well, I should say that 60 per cent, of the ladies now take s’s or 6’s. I don’t think we sell 10 per cent, of size 2’s to adult -ladies, whereas forty years ago this size, with l’s, were the ones mostly in demand.

“To what do you attribute this change?” “Freedom! The young ladies of the mid-Victorian age were not allowed to romp around at ail, and played very few games, and, if they did, it was not in the whole-hearted spirit with which girls enter into all manner of sport to-day. It has all made for the growth of the feet —hockey, goff, tennis; you, cannot play these games with crushed up toes and shoes that pinch. There must be foot freedom and comfort, whereas the. midVictorian young lady was not averse \to suffering a little that her feet might appear diminutive. Many women now take size 7’s and think nothing of it. If this change can be brought about in less than half a century, what will the size of women’s feet be in 1975?”