Standards for sizes

[yozz]

I just read on the Dutch teletext that businesses and members of the European parliament are of the opinion that there should come a European standard for sizes of clothing because with people traveling and all the different sizes there is too much confusion. Also the businesses can produce cheaper if there is only one system for sizing. This standard should hold for the whole union. Has anybody else heard about this? Would this include shoes as well? Y.

[Dr. Shoe]

There already are standard sizes. Just because we normally use a different system in the UK does not mean that there are not standards across europe. We also already have standard shoe sizes too. These haven't been universily adopted but people are getting used to asking for a 41 instead of an 8.

[yozz]

I am happy that something gets done. In the end it should be nicer for all. In the center of Amsterdam, in one of the main shopping streets there is a shoe shop selling apparently British shoes, or at least shoes with British sizes. I never know what my size should be. In Spain the sizes used to be shifted by one (European 41 would be 40 in Spain). They are changing indeed, which means that you always have to ask what size they mean (of course you can try, but if you know it saves much time and asking for yet another size). With the clothes it is more chaotic. In the big department store at the Dam (Bijenkorf) you have most clothes in 'Dutch/German' sizes but then between them are the clothes of United Colors of Benetton which differ by 4 in sizes. It says so nowhere. You can only find out by trying (or having a tape measure and measure the size of skirts). In Spain it is the reverse. Mostly southern European sizes but in some shops Northern European sizes. Y.

[Tech]

Bloody heel, what a carry-on!!! Shame the entire world cant all just agree that a specific amount of centimetres equals a specific size. The entire planet understands both metric and decimal, the entire EU is now decimal, so it really does makeyou wonder why nothing else has shifted in line with this to simplify things further. I also wonder, in EU and UK/US sizes, how exactly do they come up with thee numbers? What exactly is a Size 9, how does a specific amount of mm/cm translate into a 9 for example? Like if you ask for a ize 43, what makes that number 43? A size 9 isnt 43cm long, nor 43mm, nor 43inches, so where does that number come from?

[benno]

Re Euro Shoe Sizing:

In this system, the shoe size is the length of the last, expressed in Paris points, for both genders and for adults and children alike. Because a Paris point is ⅔ of a centimetre and the last must be same length of the foot ("perfect fitting").

There is an acronym, JFGI. It stands for something to do with Google.

I quite like the differences in sizing. Why stop at shoes? Lets all speak Esperanto while we're at it.

[Dr. Shoe]

Right. A traditional UK shoe size was invented in the medieval period and was based on the length of an ear of barleycorn in line with a Roman system of measuring short lengths. It is equivalent to multiples of 2/3 of an inch with about a 1" lead-in which is not sized. The european system is a number which is a function of length and width. The closest I can describe is a volumetric measurement except it isn't quite that.

[quidam]

it is just that people love standards so much that they're always creating a new one!.

[yozz]

That is the administrative approach. "We have too many standards, so let us make a new universal one". On the news they mentioned that for clothes all countries have their own system and they all want their system to become the standard. It may still take years.... I thought that the shoe sizing system corresponds to some formula like constant1 + constant2 x footlength All the fighting is about the constants. Y. <-- 25-th letter in the standard alphabet

[Tech]

There is an acronym, JFGI. It stands for something to do with Google.

Cheeky

[Lonnie]

A standard is only a standard if if uses something that everybody can agree on as to that something being standard. In the real world, most standards come with an adjective which immediately defines it as being non standard. IE:American Standard right away means it is only stadard in America.....There is no end. If it fits, it fits. I have found that all of the shoes that fit me well are exactly "one Standard Foot long" My foot of course being my standard.