Two numbers settle this. How long your foot is, and how much room it wants around the middle. Answer both and the box that turns up holds the pair you meant to buy. A tape measure and ten unhurried minutes will tell you more than any guess ever could.
Step one — measure, properly
Not from memory. Not from the last brand you bought. Feet change across a life, and every maker draws a different foot form.
- Lay a sheet of paper flat on a hard floor. Carpet lets the paper move and gives you a shorter number than the truth.
- Pull on the socks you genuinely mean to wear inside these boots. Thick wool changes the answer.
- Stand on the paper and let your whole weight down through the foot. A loaded foot spreads wider and reaches further than a foot held in the air.
- Hold the pen upright, square to the paper. Tipping it inward shaves off millimetres you will miss later.
- Mark twice: once behind the heel, once past the tip of your longest toe. On plenty of women that is the second toe, not the big one.
- Measure between the two marks in centimetres.
- Do the whole thing again on the other foot. They are rarely twins. The larger one decides.
- Leave it until late in the day. Feet spread as the hours pile up, and the evening foot is the one that has to stay comfortable at a dinner table.
Step two — read your size off the chart
The insole column is the one doing the work. Your toes need roughly 10 mm of clear space in front of them to walk in, so the method is simple:
Take your measurement, add one centimetre, then find the first insole figure that is not smaller than the result. That row is your size.
Worked through: your larger foot comes to 24.2 cm. Add the centimetre and you have 25.2 cm, which is 252 mm. The first insole figure that reaches 252 is 252 exactly — US 7.5. Had you measured 24.3 cm, you would step up to 257 mm, which is US 8.
| US Women’s | EU | Insole length (mm) |
|---|---|---|
| 4.5 | 35 | 227 |
| 5 | 35.5 | 231 |
| 5.5 | 36 | 235 |
| 6 | 36.5 | 239 |
| 6.5 | 37 | 244 |
| 7 | 38 | 248 |
| 7.5 | 39 | 252 |
| 8 | 39.5 | 257 |
| 8.5 | 40 | 261 |
| 9 | 40.5 | 265 |
| 9.5 | 41 | 270 |
| 10 | 42 | 274 |
| 10.5 | 42.5 | 279 |
| 11 | 43 | 282 |
| 11.5 | 44 | 287 |
| 12 | 44.5 | 292 |
| 12.5 | 45 | 295 |
| 13 | 45.5 | 299 |
| 13.5 | 46 | 303 |
| 14 | 47 | 307 |
On a phone, drag the chart sideways to see every column. The insole figure describes the inside of the boot, not your foot — it sits about 10 mm beyond the foot it was drawn for, and that margin is walking room. Toes slide forward at every step and need somewhere to land.
Ordering from outside the United States
Every size selector in this shop is written in US women’s numbers, whatever address the parcel is heading to. So convert once, here, then order the US figure:
- United Kingdom. Take two off the US number. A UK 6 is a US 8 on this shop; a UK 4 is a US 6.
- Australia and New Zealand. The numbering matches US women’s, so order the figure you would ask for at home.
- Europe. Your EU number sits beside the US one in the chart above.
Step three — Standard or Wide
Read this part twice. It is the question people get wrong, and getting it wrong is what sends a parcel back.
Wide is not a bigger boot. It is the same boot with more room wrapped around your foot. Same length, same height above the toes. The extra millimetres go into girth — the distance around the foot — because girth is where a broad foot actually runs out of space.
| Where it is measured | Standard (mm) | Wide (mm) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball girth — round the widest knuckles | 236 | 249 | +13 |
| Midfoot girth — round the middle, across the arch | 237 | 250 | +13 |
| Instep girth — round the rise, where the laces pull shut | 241 | 254 | +13 |
| Ball width — flat across, at that same widest point | 87 | 92 | +5 |
| Height above the toes | 31 | 31 | unchanged |
| Length | matched row for row | unchanged | |
All of it comes off a single US 8 form — the shape a boot is built around. These are figures for that shape, not for a human foot — please do not hold a tape to your own foot and compare it against them. Use the length method above for your size, and the list below for your fit. Wide is graded off this same base, halves included, right across the run.
Choose Wide if any of this is familiar
- The outer edge of your foot digs into the wall of a shoe that suits you perfectly well for length.
- A bunion carries the broadest point of your foot out beyond what most shoes make room for.
- Your foot is tall over the rise, and boots will not lace shut unless you haul them painfully tight.
- You have been buying a size too big purely to buy yourself width.
If none of that describes you, Standard is your fit.
Whatever you do, do not order up a size to get width.
A larger size adds length, and only length. That room lands in front of your toes where you never wanted it, your heel begins travelling upward at each stride, and a travelling heel is what raises blisters. Order the size your measurement pointed to, and pick Wide instead. Both fits cover every row on the chart above, halves and all, so nobody has to trade a fit for a size.
When your measurement lands between two rows
It often does. Two ways to break the tie:
- Move up the half size if you wear thick socks with boots, if your feet grow noticeably by evening, or if you would simply rather have air around your toes than none.
- Hold the smaller row when you like a boot sitting close, when you wear thin socks, or when your number barely cleared the row above it.
One thing that half size will not solve: width. If what you want is room around the foot rather than beyond the toes, that is the Wide column, not the next row down the chart.
If you wear your own insoles
The insole inside every pair lifts straight out — black woven top, pale foam underneath — and your own orthotic can take its place. We will not tell you how a particular orthotic behaves in a particular boot, because we have not measured yours. What we can tell you is that the space is yours to use, and that if your orthotic is a thick one, the half size up is worth thinking about.
If it still comes out wrong
- A size can never be unavailable here. Nothing in this shop exists until somebody orders it; each pair gets made from scratch for the woman who bought it. Which means any size, in either fit, is yours to order on any day you please. How long the making takes is set out on shipping & delivery.
- One free size exchange on every order, and it reaches two sizes in each direction, inside the 30 days after your boots arrive. The full wording lives on returns & refunds.
- Still uncertain? Mail cs@sunayla.com both measurements, the socks you intend to pair them with, and the size you normally buy. A person reads that and answers, generally inside one business day. Other ways of reaching us sit on the contact page.