Small sizes, adult shoes

Shoes for small feet, made for adults.

Many women's ranges start at EU 36 or 37 and many men's at EU 39 or 40. Below that you get a handful of styles, or the children's aisle. We build the last from two photos of your feet, so a small foot gets an adult shoe in its own proportions, not a scaled-down one. Handmade in Portugal.

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A small foot is not a child's foot.

Children's shoes are built on children's lasts: more volume, softer structure, different proportions, and styling to match. Adult ranges are graded down from a mid-size sample and often stop before they reach you, or shrink the length while keeping a heel and instep made for a bigger foot. Built from your scan, the proportions come from your foot, not from the bottom of a size chart.

Where small sizes go wrong

What fails at the bottom of the size chart, and what we do instead.

01

Your size starts where the range ends

In a stock shoe

Small sizes are made in short runs, sell out first, and are the first to be dropped from a style. The shoe you wanted exists, just not in your size, or not this season.

What we change

Nothing is made from stock, so there is nothing to sell out. Every pair is built to order on a last carved to your measured length, and every style in the range is open to you.

  • Made to order
  • No stock
  • Every style
02

The children's aisle as a workaround

In a stock shoe

Kids' shoes can match your length, but they are built for a different foot: rounder, higher volume, softer heel counters, and styling designed for a child. An adult foot moves around inside them and they rarely look like what you would choose.

What we change

Your last is built from your own adult proportions, and you get the same leathers, cork bed and Vibram sole as every other pair. It is an adult shoe in your size, not a children's shoe in your length.

  • Adult proportions
  • Same materials
  • Your design
03

Heel slip, even when the length is right

In a stock shoe

Grading down often shortens the shoe faster than it narrows the heel cup. The length fits, the heel lifts on every step, and you end up adding heel grips or lacing tighter than is comfortable.

What we change

Heel width and heel volume are measured from your scan, and the counter is built to them. The shoe holds at the back without relying on lacing pressure.

  • Heel width
  • Heel volume
  • Slip control
04

Too much room over the top of the foot

In a stock shoe

Girth and instep height are rarely graded down in proportion. A small, low-volume foot slides forward, the toes hit the front, and the laces run out of range before the shoe feels secure.

What we change

Ball girth and instep height are built down to your numbers, so the lacing closes in the middle of its range and the foot stays put.

  • Ball girth
  • Instep height
  • Lacing range
05

Proportions that look wrong

In a stock shoe

Shrink a shoe designed around an EU 41 down to an EU 34 and the details stay full size: a heavy sole, a wide welt, a long tongue. The shoe fits, more or less, but it looks borrowed.

What we change

The pattern is placed on your own last and the Vibram outsole is cut by hand to its outline, so the sole, upper and details sit in proportion to your foot.

  • Hand cut sole
  • Pattern to your last
  • In proportion

The inputs

What two photos actually capture.

Each foot is measured independently. There is no averaging between left and right, and no rounding to the nearest size.

  • Length Heel to longest toe, per foot. Yours are almost certainly not identical.
  • Ball width The widest point across the joints. The first thing a stock shoe gets wrong.
  • Ball girth The circumference around the joints. Width alone misses a deep or shallow forefoot.
  • Instep height How much room the shoe needs over the top of the foot before lacing pressure starts.
  • Heel width Controls slippage. A narrow heel in a graded shoe is the reason your foot lifts.
  • Arch height and length Where support has to sit, and where it must not.
  • Toe shape Which toe is longest, and how much room the box needs in front of it.
  • Asymmetry The measured difference between your two feet, kept rather than averaged away.

Small sizes

Questions about small feet.

Do you make adult shoes in small sizes, down to EU 31 or a US women's 4 and under?

Yes. Every pair is built from a 3D model of your feet rather than picked from a size run, so an EU 31 goes through exactly the same process as any other size. Take two photos with your phone and we build the last to your measured length and width.

Are these children's shoes?

No. They are adult shoes, built on a last made from your own foot, with the same vegetable tanned leather, cork bed and Vibram sole as every other pair we make.

Can I get narrow shoes in a small size?

Yes. Width, heel width and girth are measured separately from length, so a small, narrow foot gets a small, narrow last that holds without being laced tight.

What if one foot is bigger than the other?

Each foot gets its own last, built to its own length, width and volume. The pair looks matched from the outside and fits each foot on the inside.

How long do custom shoes take?

Four to six weeks. Every pair is cut and built by hand in Portugal after you take your photos and design your pair. We check the fit with a fitting test before your shoe is made, and if the finished pair still isn't right, tell us where and we make one more pair at our cost within sixty days.

What we are not

We make shoes. We are not a clinic.

Custom footwear solves fit problems. It does not treat medical conditions. If you have diabetes, neuropathy, an active ulcer, a healing fracture, or a prescription orthotic written by a specialist, work with your podiatrist first and bring us what they tell you. We will build to their guidance, and we will tell you honestly if what you need is therapeutic footwear rather than what we make.

For everything short of that, which is most people, the fix is geometric rather than clinical. A last built to your measurements, room where you need it, structure where you do not.

An adult shoe, at your size.

Two photos, under three minutes, on the phone you already have. Your length, your width, your shoe.

Take measurements