Tanya Herbert has officially been named the woman with the largest feet in the world, according to the 2022 Guinness World Records. Herbert’s feet total a size 18 (women’s) or 16-17 (men’s).
With her only viable shoe option being shopping online, Herbert revealed to Records that looking for shoes traditionally can be a challenge to overcome. Through utilizing social media, she’s connected with other women facing a similar issue and has learned to make her own footwear more comfortable.
“I would buy some of the largest shoes I could find online and manipulate those to extend them out a little longer and make them a little wider so that they would fit my feet,” Herbert said.
Similar challenges are faced by women with larger-sized feet when shopping for shoes, as Herbert discovered online. She is hoping to share her story to push more footwear manufacturing companies to carry a larger size range — simultaneously creating more affordable shoe options for women.
“Women struggle with size 12 or 13, trying to find shoes, and I’m size 18,” Herbert said. “You can find men’s size shoes [that are that size] easily but trying to find women’s shoes is impossible or extremely unaffordable.”
Currently, the majority of women’s footwear sizes extends to a size 12. Men’s often extend to a size 12 as well — AKA, a 14 in women’s. However, some men’s brands do extend their boot and sneaker styles to a size 16 — equivalent to a women’s 18 — including Good Man Brand, Sperry, Propet, Dockers, Reebok Work and Johnston & Murphy, as seen at DSW. Currently, one of the only shoe brands with size 18 for women’s feet is Crocs.
Previously, Julie Felton of Ellesmere, Shropshire, in the U.K. held the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest feet on a woman in 2019.
She said it’s been nearly “impossible” to find shoes that fit her feet, a whopping 15.5 men’s (U.S.); they each measure just over 1 foot long. Not only is it difficult to find shoes her size, it’s even more challenging to ferret out a stylish pair. But for her wedding last month, her significant other, Steve, wanted to see his bride walk down the aisle with confidence.
Few options were available, so he contacted the British shoe company Rainbow Club, which offered to make Felton a pair of custom shoes for the ceremony, held on April 20. Rainbow Club designed an ivory satin Mary Jane-style flat featuring crystal embellishments at the toe. She called them “the most beautiful pair of shoes” she’s ever owned.
Felton stands at 6 foot 5 and has always had bigger feet than her peers. In fact, her first shoes were an infant’s size 6 as opposed to the average size 2. At 16 years old, she said her feet were a mere size 11.
Felton hopes that the press surrounding her feet “brings attention to shoemakers that average sizes are getting bigger.” “It would be really nice one day to walk into a shoe shop and just pick a pair off the shelf and try them on,” she said, adding that the last time she was able to do so was as a child.
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