Footwear Sizes in India: Four Numbers, One Box

One pair of shoes can carry four numbers: a UK number on the insole, a US number on the box, an EU number on the barcode label and a centimetre figure in the supplier sheet. Only one of them traces back to an Indian Standard, and that standard was written for the factory, not for the label.

What the Indian Standard actually standardises

IS 1638:1969, Specification for Sizes and Fitting of Footwear (First Revision), was adopted on 15 December 1969 and reaffirmed in 2004, under the Bureau committee CHD 19, Footwear.

Its scope, at clause 1.1, is worth reading twice: the standard prescribes the sizes and fittings for footwear lasts which are required for manufacture of footwear. A last is the form a shoe is built on. This is a factory document.

It gives last measurements in the English size scale in its first two tables and in the Paris Point scale in eight more. Clause 3.1 sets five adult fittings, E for very small through F, G and H to XH for extra large, numbered 5 to 9 in Paris Point. The note under that clause is the interesting part: where D is the average fitting in Western countries, in India it is G.

Clause 3.3 sorts the sizes into six categories, from infants to men, each with an English range and a Paris Point range. Nowhere does the standard say what to print on a box or in a listing.

Where the four numbers come from

The English scale, which the trade calls UK, starts at children’s size 0 for a four inch length and steps by one third of an inch, about 8.5 mm, per full size. Children’s sizes run 0 to 13 and adult sizes are numbered onwards from 13, which is why adult 1 follows children’s 13 rather than continuing the count.

The Paris Point, which underlies continental EU numbers, is two thirds of a centimetre. That scale runs from 0 without a break and half sizes are not made.

IS 1638 shows the arithmetic rather than asserting a chart. Its own worked example takes adult English size 8 to 11 inches, then to 27.94 cm, then to 42 Paris Point at the nearest point.

The American scale is where the standard gets cautious. Appendix A carries a comparative table, and the note under it warns that the American scale starts from a different origin than the English one and that the matter is complicated by the American practice of stamping shoes a size and a half up, so a size 4 is marked 5 and a half, with fittings marked two down. A convention flagged in 1969 is still why two suppliers hand you different US numbers for one last.

No rule tells you which system to print

IS 1638 is not in either footwear Quality Control Order. S.O. 1421(E) and S.O. 1422(E) of 15 March 2024 list product standards, so the sizing standard is not compulsory in its own right. The orders themselves are covered in selling footwear online in India.

It bites by reference instead. The Bureau record for IS 1638 shows it referenced inside a set of footwear standards, several of which are named in the Quality Control Order tables, among them IS 3735, IS 3976, IS 5557, IS 12254, IS 14544, IS 16994, IS 17012 and IS 17037.

The product standards go further and force a size onto the article without forcing a system. IS 15298 Part 4 for occupational footwear, in its 2010 edition, requires each item to be clearly and permanently marked with size, the manufacturer’s identification mark, the type designation, the year and at least the quarter of manufacture, the standard number and the protection symbols. IS 6721 for PVC sandals, in its 1972 edition, required the sole to carry the manufacturer’s name or trade mark and to be marked with the corresponding English size, moulded in, with ink marking not permitted. IS 10702 for hawai chappals, in its 1992 edition, required size and type, source of manufacture, an adults or children identification and a batch number, with each package to hold one size only.

Those are the editions in the public record; the order tables now name the 2023 editions of IS 6721 and IS 10702, and both orders say the latest version applies. The pattern is what matters: a size is compulsory on the article, the scale usually left open, except where a standard names the English size.

The Bha question

CSIR-CLRI ran a national foot survey and proposed an Indian footwear sizing system, called Bha, on the argument that Indian feet are not well served by an adapted English scale. The recommendation went to DPIIT and on to the Bureau of Indian Standards. CSIR-CLRI presents adoption as voluntary, and neither 2024 footwear Quality Control Order refers to it. Plan for it as an extra attribute, because a system that arrives voluntarily arrives as one more number on the same box.

What the listing has to carry

Hold foot length in millimetres as the source value. It is the only figure that does not depend on which country’s scale someone picked, and every other number is a conversion from it. Derive UK, US and EU from one table the brand owns and versions, not from whatever the last supplier sent.

Say which convention you mean, in words, next to the number. A listing that says 8 and one that says UK 8 are not making the same claim, and a buyer comparing two of your styles cannot tell.

Carry width. IS 1638 standardises five adult fittings and records that India’s average is G against the Western D, and almost no Indian catalogue exposes a fitting attribute at all. Sell a G fitting shoe as a plain size 8 and the one field that explains why it runs differently from a competitor is missing.

Treat size as a variation axis, not as text. A size that lives in the title or the description cannot be filtered, cannot be parented and cannot be reconciled against stock, which is the same discipline as variation parentage on Amazon.

Then make the four agree. For Quality Control Order categories the size is moulded or embossed into the article and cannot be edited afterwards, and the box and barcode are printed. The catalogue is the only one that is easy to change, which is why it is the one that drifts. What happens after a mismatched size reaches a customer is a separate problem, handled in sizing, fit and returns.