Sales stats from retailer JD Williams reveal the female foot is getting bigger across the nation. The change is attributed to women’s feet becoming broader rather than longer - experts putting this down to an increase in average body weight as women grow taller. Demand for wider width shoes has sparked a 72% increase in demand vs. last year at the online store.
Carie Barkhuizen, JD Williams Spokesperson says, “We have seen sales of wider width shoes soar as women become more aware of wearing the correct fitting footwear.
Women often make the common mistake of thinking they need a larger size shoe when in actual fact they just need to go up a width size.”
The retailer currently offers the widest array of shoe widths on the High Street, up to a whopping EEEEEE – x inches larger than a regular width shoe. The UK Standard shoe width fitting is a D and 96% of the retailer’s footwear sales this season have been on width fittings of an E and above
45% of these sales have come on width fittings at EEE or above - 3 width fittings above the UK standard.
Women needn’t feel alone however, the average female shoe size has increased by one and a half sizes over the last 10 years; from four and a half in 1995, to a size six in 2015 and larger, wider sizes are increasingly in demand.
Celebrity women with larger feet include; Nicole Kidman (size 9), Jerry Hall (8), Paris Hilton (9), Michelle Obama (9), Kate Winslet (9) and Geena Davis (9.5).
Carie Barkhuizen continues; ”high fashion shoes such as stilettos in larger sizes have to be made much stronger with sturdier load bearing points, able to cope with greater levels of stress and wear.
“The materials and techniques now available means that the majority of shoes can be made strong and comfortable enough in larger sizes which would have been unimaginable just ten years ago.”
Podiatrist Xx explains the importance of wearing the correct width shoes;
JD Williams currently offers all Summer must have shoe styles; wellingtons, flip flops, espadrilles, Sliders and sandals in a wide range of widths in sizes 4-9, width D- EEEEEE at JDWilliams.co.uk, prices from £7.
ENDS
For more information and high-res imagery please contact: Lizzie Singleton 020 78963219 / [email protected]
N Brown Group is a leading multi-channel retailer headquartered in Manchester employing over 3.200 people. The company's strategy has been to focus each of the brands in its portfolio towards niche markets which are poorly served on the high street, such as the plus size and more mature customer segments. The Group has total sales of over £780m as of January 2013 with online sales representing over 53% of total revenue. As part of its multi-channel strategy, N Brown Group operates nine Simply Be stores across the UK of which six are dual facias with Jacamo. Current brands include Simply Be, Jacamo, Fashion World, JD Williams, Marisota, House of Bath, Figleaves, Gray & Osbourn and High and Mighty. The Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: BWNG) and is a constituent of the FTSE250.
