If you go to a proper shoe shop and they measure your feet using a foot measure there are 2 scales on them, the sizing numbers we all know and an oddly numbered scale which "maps" the foot incliding width

Its this scale I want to know the name of
Has a nice sounding name possibly Swiss in origin

Hi bedstor,
You are talking about measuring the width of a person's foot on a Brannock device, yes? Or is it some other device for measuring the length and width of feet?
I was wondering if perhaps you meant the mondopoint system, which is just another another way of presenting the figures, after using the Brannock device? But this is a measuremnent showing both length and width.

The mondopoint system, which I have got on several shoes sizing links originally for Ski/Alpine boots

quote:

What is Mondo Point Sizing?Alpine, telemark and snowboard boots are fitted through the Mondopoint system, where the size represents the length of the foot in centimeters

Source
Not seen a cross reference to your other amswer dg

Then Bedstor, I have to question the phrasing of your original post. The mondopoint system is just another way of presenting both shoe sizes in widths and lengths.
Source

and here,

Width or girth designators:

Some manufacturers offer shoes of different width for the same foot length. Such shoes are then also labelled according to the width or girth of the widest part of the foot (typically measured directly behind the toes with the subject standing on both feet and wearing socks or hose).

In the Mondopoint system, the shoe size label can state in addition to the length also the width of the mean foot for which the shoe is suitable, both measured in millimetres.

A number of other ad-hoc notations for width or girth are also used. Examples include (each starting with the narrowest width):

AAAA, AAA, AA, A, B, C, D, E, EE, EEE, EEEE, EEEEEE
4A, 3A, 2A, A, B, C, D, E, 2E, 3E, 4E, 6E
N, R, W
None of these designations is formally standardized. The exact foot width for which these sizes are suitable can vary significantly between manufacturers. The A-E width indicators used by some US and UK shoe manufacturers are typically based on the width of the foot, and common step sizes are 1/4 inch (6 mm) or 3/16 inch (5 mm).
Wikipedia

However, The Brannock device is universally accepted as the instrument for measuring shoe sizes, and the modopoint system is another way of presenting those statistics obtained by that device.

dg I'm a plain stick my foot in the measure and I know they'll say a 10 or a wide 9 do also have a pair of 1ls which are comfy

Not after tailor made shoes! T'll destroy them in no time Off the shelf footwear is designed to allow for abuse and harder wearing materials used (learnt that fact in a shoe making class in technical school...rare considering I was a duffer educationally )

I have no idea what Bedstor said in his last post, but both answers Dancegirl gave fit the question. The Brannock device (which I thought I asked about in an earlier trivia question) is almost universally accepted, and seems to give closer width information that the mondopoint measuring system. Which one of them is Bedstor's correct answer escapes me.

DG
Was clear enough Had never come across the Brannock device.And, I had missed your earlier trivia question on it. Hence the only answer I wanted was Mondopoint

Does that clarify things?

PS Just been on the Site and they are made in Liverpool ... New York State
http://brannock.com/cgi-bin/start.cgi/brannock/index.html

So, of the two correct answers, the only one you knew about was mondopint. Yeah, that's clear.

I couldn't resist to add that:

It is a myth that the Imperial " foot " (= 304.8 mm) is about the length of the average European male foot. The average today is less than 270 mm and 90% of the population is within 20 mm of that. So very few men today have feet that are a "foot" long. Most are over 35 mm shorter. In the past, the average length would have been less. Even the overall length of most shoes remains well short of one "foot". (Source)



The myth that a man's foot size is correlated to the size of his " male thing" has been discredited in anthropometric studies [http://www.nbc5.com/News/1695824/detail.html]. AHH! those British.... always bragging!