An estimated 60% of people have feet that aren’t the same size — with the difference between them being up to 3 inches.
It’s pretty difficult to find shoes sized to fit BOTH your feet, individually, so most of us just do our best to pick a size that’ll work for both feet.
But now, Amazon-owned online shoe store Zappos is making it easier for people to get pairs of shoes with two different sizes.
You can buy one shoe at a time from Nike, Converse & 5 other brands.
As of July 14, shoppers with different sized feet and those who wear prosthetics can now buy just one shoe from Nike, Converses, New Balance, Stride Rite, KIZIK, BILLY Footwear and PLAE.
Buying a mixed pair of shoes isn’t any more expensive than a same-size pair.
Single shoes cost between $17.50 and $85, and when compared with the price of a same-size pair, the biggest difference we saw was $0.01. All in all, Zappos is making it affordable to get single shoes.
Here are some shoes we found on Zappos:
- Nike Flyease Revolution 5 – $32.50 singles, $65.00 pair
- Converse Chuck Taylor All Star – $27.50 singles, $54.99 pair
- KIZIK New York Hands Free – $75.00 singles, $150.00 pair
- PLAE Ty (Toddler/Little Kid) – $27.47 singles, $54.95 pair
More brands are going to be added soon.
Zappos says that the pilot program will expand, just as demand for mixed-size footwear grows. Coresight Research says that people spent $8 billion on these kinds of shoes in 2020 and predicts it’ll grow to $10.6 billion by 2024.
Zappos isn’t the only store to sell split-pair shoes.
- Nordstrom has an unadvertised split shoe policy, which allows people to buy shoes that are up to 1.5 sizes apart, for no extra cost.
- Healthy Feet Store has a special discount program for these kinds of shoes, but you have to call them 9 AM to 5 PM ET weekdays to place an order (1-866-324-3338).
- Shoe Swap is an online exchange where people can buy, sell, and trade single shoes.
- Birkenstock will discount some shoes 40% if you need to buy just one, and they’ll increase or decrease one shoe up to 1 size. Call if you have questions: 1-800-451-1459.