Sizing, Fit & Feel
I. Sizing
- Order one size down from your athletic shoe size.
- If you have narrow feet, then order a size down.
- If you have wide feet and usually order a size up to get enough space, then order a size down.
- Like traditional dress shoes, our minimalist dress shoes have extra length for a sleek tip. It's one of the main reasons why people declare our shoes the best-looking compared to other barefoot brands. Without this extra length for a sleek tip, dress shoes look too "clowny".
- Unlike traditional dress shoes, our minimalist dress shoes have a wide toe box, so you can wiggle and splay your toes naturally. We give you the best of both worlds, dress and barefoot.
- However, this combination of extra length AND wide toe box causes our shoes to run large, particularly for people with narrower feet.
- Our shoes also use dress and casual sizing (see chart below), which runs larger than the athletic sizing that many people are used to.
- We highly recommend emailing us at care@carets.com if you are uncertain about what size to get. We're more than happy to help and this will reduce the future hassle of you having to deal with returns/refunds.
II. Fit & Feel
This image shows roughly how/where your feet should sit inside a pair of Carets, at right.
At left is a typical dress shoe, same size and same Wide width. You can see that it is still 1 or 2 cm longer than ours. Most sleeker dress shoes have a fair amount of unoccupied space in the front. We took advantage of that and used it to give you a wide toe box without looking like it. Dress shoes get even longer if we start looking at chisel-toe and pointy-toe styles. But even though these conventional dress shoes are longer, you still feel cramped because of the heel lift and the fact that their shoes are widest at the ball of the foot. Ours are widest at the toes, as a foot naturally is.
If the widest part of your feet (i.e. your toes) occupies the widest part of our shoes, then you are wearing the right size.
GROUNDFEEL: In total, there is 9 mm of material between your foot and the floor. Our flexible, durable, polyurethane outsole is 4.5 mm thick. Above that, is some of the upper leather, wrapped under. Above that, is a thin layer of Poron performance cushioning. Finally, we have a layer of smooth full-grain leather upon which your foot nestles.
In the end, what matters most is that you are happy with your shoes! We will gladly take them back (365-day free returns and exchanges, click for details) and I am honored that you gave us a shot.