Fats Waller Was Right About Your Feet's

This must mean something: “According to the National Shoe Retailers Association, 30 years ago the best-selling shoe size for women was 71/2. Now it’s 81/2. For men, it used to be 91/2. Now it’s 101/2. Theories for the ever-spreading footprint abound. Some say the sturdy shoes our mothers put us in at an early age fostered growth. Others say it’s all the pizza that teens chow down, blaming hormone-laced cheese. Michael Weiss, Nordstrom’s national retail director for women’s shoes, says it’s a simple shoe-to-foot algorithm: Once the comfort shoe came on the scene — the clog, the Earth shoe, the recently ubiquitous Crocs — ‘women’s feet began to spread,’ he says, and getting back into pointy-toed struttin’ shoes becomes a doggone squeeze.” [Via]