Check out "Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men" by Caroline Criado Perez.

I bought a pair of running shoes 20 years ago that said they were specifically designed for a woman’s foot and they were hands down the best runners I ever owned. I’ve never found them again and have since forgotten the brand.

I believe Ryka is the only brand that makes running shoes specifically designed for women’s feet. It’s maddening.

This is why we die more in car crashes. The safety systems including seatbelts are only tested on dummies the average height and weight of a man. We don’t even exist.

Let’s all email the trainer-making companies to ask if they design women’s shoes specifically for women. Then we’ll know which brands to buy.

Women are not smaller men. It’s the tip of the iceberg as many have said. Women’s bodies are “too complicated” to study, research and gain knowledge on and about. It’s so sad and can literally kill us (heart attack symptoms being different for example).

I really like Dr. Stacey Sims because I’m an athlete. This is her slogan “women are not smaller men”.

https://www.drstacysims.com

I read some of the links you posted in response to another commenter, and the wider forefoot thing speaks to my soul, lol. My feet are so wide at the ball that I’ve had trouble finding shoes of ANY type that fit for my entire life—from pumps to athletic shoes to most boots. I embrace two strategies when wides aren’t available: (1) Find shoes with a lot of “give” or stretch at the sides at the ball of the foot, and let my foot overflow the sole of the shoe there; or more commonly, (2) Get shoes a half or full size larger than my foot length requires (and also a looser heel).

I’m a hiker, so luckily, for hiking boots or trail runners, strategy 2 is actually the recommended fit—but even then, I’m always looking for the widest toe box I can find.

Realizing that athletic shoes being designed for men is compounding my problem is fucking infuriating.

My husband and I have been married for over a decade, and it was only a few months ago that we realized that we have a completely different idea on whether a shoe fits or not. If there’s anything more than a slight space past his toes, he thinks a shoe is too big; if there’s only a slight space past mine, I think the shoe is too small—which is clearly because I’ve been wearing my shoes too big for almost 30 years now. He recently got a pair of Nikes that he’d consider a half size too big, at my urging, because they were on clearance and were super cool. After he’d worn them around for a few weeks, he was like, “These are great! I’ve been missing out on so many shoes because I thought they were too big!” (Note: He was a serious soccer player when he was younger, and I think that has something to do with him thinking a shoe must basically be melded to your foot to fit, lol.)

Anyway, I shared that story because, for his entire life, my husband has had the luxury of wearing shoes that aren’t a size too big due to his narrower forefoot while I’ve been wearing clown shoes for so long that it’s warped my sense of how shoes are supposed to fit. Also, this is why he can wear fucking Nikes, and I can never find a pair that’s wide enough for actual athletic use. Sometimes I just want to wear some cool neon sneakers too.

Lmao why am I somehow not at all surprised 🤣

Everyone’s bodies are so different that I think a standard sizing system inherently can’t work. I wish they could just scan bodies and tailor everything perfectly.

I saw that on Tik Tok