Converse Shoe Size Guide

Converse trainers are famous for running large, and the Chuck Taylor All Star is the worst offender. Across the canvas Hi and Low silhouettes you can expect the shoe to feel roughly half a size to a full size bigger than the number on the box, so the standing advice is to size down rather than up. Half a size down suits most feet; on the classic Chucks, where the flat last and generous toe box leave plenty of slack, sizing down a full size is the safer bet if you wear thin socks or want a snug, no-slip hold around the heel.

The fit is complicated slightly by the fact that Converse builds most of its canvas Chucks on a single unisex last labelled with the men's US number. To find your figure as a woman you take the men's size and subtract roughly one and a half — in other words women's US is about men's US plus 1.5, read in reverse. Kids' Converse run large in the same way, so the size-down instinct carries across the whole range. Treat every figure here as approximate: lasts vary by model, and a leather One Star will not feel identical to a canvas Chuck even at the same labelled size.

Most classic Chuck Taylors carry a single US size on the box, and that number is the men's figure. Two people wearing the exact same shoe will therefore quote different sizes depending on which scale they read — a man reads the box number directly, while a woman adds about one and a half to reach the size she would normally ask for in a women's shoe. Because women's US sits roughly one and a half sizes above men's US, the same physical Chuck can be described as, say, a men's figure or the woman's equivalent a notch and a half higher. Knowing which scale a retailer is using is the single most useful thing to check before you buy online.

Half-size availability is limited on some Chuck Taylor runs, which is exactly why the direction you round matters. If your true size falls between two whole numbers and only whole sizes are stocked, rounding down keeps the roomy Converse last in check, whereas rounding up amplifies the slack you were already fighting. Anchor everything to your foot length in centimetres rather than to a remembered size: measure the longer foot, match it to the foot-length column in the charts below, and then apply the size-down before you commit to a number.

Once you have applied the size-down, reading the charts is straightforward. Work out the Converse US size you intend to buy, find that row, and read across to the UK, EU, JP and foot-length columns. The EU figures are Paris points, the continental standard, and the foot length in centimetres is the anchor every other column is derived from — so if a number ever looks off, trust the centimetre measurement of your own foot first.

A couple of worked examples, consistent with the on-page tables: a woman who normally takes a US 8 but is buying canvas Chucks would size down to a US 7, then read that row in the women's chart for the matching UK, EU and JP figures. A man who usually wears a US 9 would drop to a US 8 and read the men's chart across. Remember the unisex labelling throughout — if a listing only shows the men's number, a woman should locate the equivalent men's row (about one and a half sizes below her usual women's figure) before applying the same size-down.