Do sex differences exist in foot shape?: a hierarchical cluster analysis

Footwear brands have been trying to provide a well-fitting shoe for a wide variety of foot shapes in order to meet the customer expectations. A typical example is that different shoe lasts have been used in shoe design to accommodate the different dimensions of the foot shapes between male and female. In fact, men’s feet are longer and wider than women’s feet (e.g., Wunderlich and Cavanagh, 2001), which should be related to the anthropometric differences between the sexes. The majority of previous research on the foot shape differences between the sexes has been conducted using 1D or 2D measures, such as arch height, foot circumference and so on. For these variables, relatively small differences between the sexes have been observed when normalized to the foot length (Krauss et al., 2011). However, little is known regarding the 3D shape difference by taking into account the size differences.