In my many years of working with clients, I’ve encountered two clients with extraordinarily narrow feet. Until I met them, I really didn’t understand how challenging it was to buy shoes that fit. People with narrow feet can’t just walk into a shoes store and pick a pair of shoes. They also tend to hoard shoes because, when they do find a pair at a store that fit, they don’t want to miss out… even if they don’t know when or where they’ll wear the pair.
And let’s not get started with the pain involved in wearing shoes that are too wide. One of my clients with narrow feet told me that she feels like she plays blister-round-robin as she always has at least one blister on her foot in the process of healing. Sure, if someone with narrow feet could just stand there and look pretty in their shoes that’d be fine; but God-forbid they have to walk anywhere. Oh, and ask a friend with narrow feet how many pairs of socks they need to wear with sneakers or tennis shoes and you may be surprised to hear it is often multiple pairs.
Is there a store that caters to special sized feet? Well, there are few, actually. Nordstrom has a decent selection of special widths as does Zappos. Another resource few are familiar with is Marmi Shoes that has a few store locations throughout the country along with a great online shopping site. Their prices are reasonable and the styles aren’t frumpy…a common problem found with shoes in special widths.
Let’s take a look at a few:
This comfortable, yet stylish, wedge pump is a great update for a work shoe. Available in black or this great bronze color in narrow sizes.
This fun fall bootie with a touch of leopard trim would be great with a pair of leggings or opaque tights.
Add a punch of color to your outfit with this red platform shoe. Available in black, as well.
Add a timeless finish to every casual outfit with these knee-high riding boots.
Loafers can be so boring and traditional, but when they have a touch of animal print they go from blah to bodacious!
I order my narrow footwear from Joker’s Closet. email them or add a comment when checking out regarding this request. I find their shoes to be quite comfortable.
This is great to know! Thanks for the suggestion! I am going to check them out!!
Guest, hi there. I see the word comfortable in your writ. Now already that worries me a bit. No high heel on earth is ever truly comfortable but I can stand it a while – don’t want stuff that resemble hush puppies or green cross. Am going to look in any case. Thanks for name.
For sneakers, walking shoes, running shoes – try New Balance. Not all stores that carry this brand carry the narrow and wide widths, but the New Balance stores do, and so does the web site. I think their Aravon shoes also come in widths.
Great suggestions, thanks!
WOW !!! I am so glad to hear that someone out there can feel my pain….. I wear a Triple A…yes I said AAA. Do you have any idea of how hard it is to find stylish narrow shoes? It’s almost impossible. There are several brand names that come in narrow…but that’s only a Double A and that is still too wide for my feet. There is one shoe that I found that does come in Quad A and that’s Munro. They are expensive but sometimes you can find them at Nordstrom Rack Room, now that a good deal. A few other brand names make Triple A’s but they must only make one or two pairs because every time I call they are all gone. And good luck on finding something that’s narrow and stylish even at Nordstrom’s on line, do a search on Quad A (since they don’t have triple A) and let me know how many stylish shoes you come up with. There are 19 and all of them are Munro which is great but I had something more stylish in mind like a platform sandal.
I will definately take a look at some of the other suggestions that you have posted.
So just as I thought, just went to look at Marmi’s and just can’t win, can I? Just no style whatsoever. So it doesn’t exist.
Oh no! I’m not sure what your post means. Are you saying that the styles above don’t exist. This is an older post so they are probably sold out.
Did you check the site in general?
No Sorry, expressed myself badly. I want sexy strappy high heels and they’re nowhere to be found on the entire whole earth. All the shoes (IMO) that are narrow (and I guess these are not narrow enough either) look like medical shoes to me. So I’m done for shoes-wise. yes I did check the site in general, there’s nothing. I think to get to proper narrow it has to be a boot or some such so that you have to, as always, resort to socks inside. Really my heart is broken.
If my interpretation of her comment is correct, I agree with Judit and disagree with the title of this post. I wear 8-4a and yes, narrow feet DO mean narrow shoe options; not so for 2a wearers, but everyone 3a and better is up a creek. The frumpy, matronly, fashion bereft nature of narrow shoes has changed little over the decades I’ve waded through them trying to find things to wear. There may even be an argument that conditions have gotten worse, i.e. many brands and manufacturers of yesteryear that served 3a-6a (Pappagallo, DeLiso, Johansen Brothers for example) never made it through the 20th century, let alone into the 21st.
In my opinion, the shoe industry gives wearers of b-width, sizes 6-9 the most options and progressively marginalizes everyone else the further they are from this core. This is true of luxury brands like Cole Haan, Ferragamo, and Stuart Weitzman down the chain to Munro and Naturalizer, so the entrenched myopia would need to be addressed first. After that, maybe the selections for us would get better. Neither Zappos, Marmi, Nordstrom, nor any of the rest do well at addressing our needs. Plus, they cannot sell what does not get made.
HEAR! HEAR!!! And, ShoeSufferer, I bet YOUR feet ALSO are not malformed, just narrow? Thank you for speaking up. You expressed far better than I did. Kudo’s to you. But… will they listen. I guess not. So it’s me back to a thick old sowing needle and my trusty dental floss with the hope that no-one will look too closely at my rustic stitching, Thing is because I have to choose a soft upper often those are cheap shoes and it’s not long before they tear in my stitching. Drat.