Kids' Shoe Size Chart: 30 Brands Compared

Children's shoe sizes are not comparable between brands, and the numbering is worse than adults': it restarts partway through, and every brand marks the restart differently. Below is the same child's foot read against 30 brands' own published children's charts.

One foot, 27 brands, 15 different answers

A child measuring 18.5 cm is not one size across the industry. Of the 27 brands making a shoe for that foot, the answers run from an 11 to a 13 — two full sizes apart for the same foot — and the largest group agreeing on any single answer is 5. The letters move too: 3 of the 15 labels carry no band letter at all, and where a letter does appear it sits before the number for some brands and after it for others.

Every figure is that brand's own published children's chart, read at the same 18.5 cm foot length. Note adidas writes a lowercase k where UGG and LOWA write an uppercase K — the same character, different scales.

The same foot across the range

A dash means the brand does not make a shoe that small or that large. Each figure comes from that brand's own published children's chart.

Why children's size numbers restart

Children's sizing runs out of numbers. A scale that starts at the smallest infant shoe reaches 13 while the foot is still around 19 cm, so it restarts at 1 and climbs again. That means a size 1 and a size 13 can be one step apart, and a size 4 exists twice, once for an 11 cm foot and once for a 22 cm foot.

Brands mark that restart differently, which is why the table above looks inconsistent. ASICS uses a K prefix, Skechers a T, Crocs uses C and J, Adidas a lowercase k, and Nike, Merrell and many others use C and Y. Some, like Chaco and Blundstone, use no marker at all. If you are reading a size off a box, check which band it belongs to before ordering.

Watch for grow room already in the chart

Some retailers publish children's charts with growing room already added, so their figures are shoe length rather than foot length. One Clarks chart ran more than a centimeter longer than Clarks' own at the same size for exactly this reason. If a chart tells you to add a centimeter or two to your measurement, that instruction has probably already been applied to its numbers, and adding it again will oversize the shoe by a full size.

Measure the foot itself, match that to the brand's chart, and add room only if the brand says to.

Which brands publish their own children's data

Not all of them do. 30 of the 35 brands here show figures taken from the brand's own sizing rather than a generic scale — 29 from a published children's chart verified against the brand or against multiple independent sources, and Brooks from the brand's own adult-sizing guidance, because it makes no children's range at all and its own guidance tells younger wearers to size on the adult scale. The remaining 5 (Columbia, Danner, On, Red Wing, Steve Madden) either publish no children's measurements, or publish figures that disagree between sources by more than a size. For those, the calculator shows the standard youth scale and says so on the result rather than presenting it as the brand's own.

How to measure a child's foot

The method is the same as for an adult, with one difference that matters more: measure with the child standing and bearing weight, because a toddler's foot spreads noticeably under load. See the measuring guide for the full method.