Australian Shoe Sizes Explained

The single most important fact about Australian shoe sizing is that it runs on two different scales depending on who the shoe is made for. Australian women's sizes follow the United States scale, so a woman's AU 8 is the same as a US 8. Australian men's sizes, by contrast, follow the British (UK) scale, so a man's AU 9 is the same as a UK 9. The two conventions sit side by side in the same country, on the same shelves, which is exactly why so many shoppers come unstuck. An AU 9 stamped on a pair of men's boots and an AU 9 printed inside a pair of women's heels do not describe the same foot length at all.

The split is a legacy of how the two halves of the market grew up. Men's footwear in Australia inherited British sizing through the country's long colonial-era trade ties with the United Kingdom, and that convention was never displaced. Women's fashion footwear, on the other hand, came of age later under heavy American influence, and the US scale travelled with the brands that dominated it. Because the men's and women's industries standardised at different times and looked to different markets, the two scales were never reconciled. Australia simply carried both forward, and the result is a sizing system that quietly assumes you already know which gender scale you are reading.

For women, the conversion is refreshingly direct: AU equals US. A women's AU 8 is a US 8, a women's AU 9 is a US 9, and so on straight up the scale. The UK number for women sits roughly one and a half sizes below the AU/US figure, and the EU number — measured in Paris points rather than inches — lands somewhere around the high 30s to low 40s for the most common adult sizes. If you only ever buy women's shoes, you can treat the AU and US columns as interchangeable and check the reference table above for the UK and EU equivalents.

For men, the key is to remember that AU equals UK, and that US men's sizing runs about half a size larger than the UK/AU number. So a men's AU 9 is a UK 9, which works out to roughly a US 9.5. Put the other way round, if a US brand quotes you a men's 10, the Australian and British equivalent is about a 9.5. The EU figure for men, again in Paris points, typically sits in the low-to-mid 40s for those same sizes. These relationships are approximate — shoe lasts vary between brands and even between models from the same maker — so the foot length in centimetres in the final column is always the most reliable anchor. When two charts disagree, trust the measurement.

Children's shoes in Australia broadly follow the UK kids' scale, the same convention used for men's footwear. That means an Australian children's size will usually match the equivalent UK children's size and sit a little below the US kids' number for the same foot. Because there is no separate boys' and girls' offset in the early years, a single kids' scale generally serves both, with the adult men's and women's split only appearing once feet grow into adult sizing.

With that said, children's sizing is the area where you should lean hardest on measurement rather than the number on the box. Young feet grow quickly and in spurts, and a half-size of guesswork can mean a shoe that is outgrown in weeks or pinches from day one. Measure the longest part of the foot in centimetres, stand the child up so the foot spreads under their weight, add a small growing allowance of around half a centimetre, and match that figure to the foot-length column. Doing this every couple of months is far more dependable than assuming last season's size still fits.