Nike Refuses
to Accept the International System of Units

Buying Nike sneakers online is almost impossible if you’re not into Nike’s weird metrics where a centimetre isn’t a centimetre.

So, according to Wikipedia, a centimetre is 0.01 meters or 0.393700787401574803149606299212598425196850 inches.

According to Nike, it all depends on where you live and who you ask. Confusing? Oh yea!

How do Nike make money on online sales? Beats me.

My story starts with my aunt from Bergen. She is very generous and gave me some money for Christmas, wanting me to buy something concrete.

This story ends with a purchase from a friendly and helpful woman in a Eurosko shop. A real shop. In a building. With real shoes. That I could test-drive. The woman looked very similar to the wife of a relative of mine, but that is another story.

Me being a one-pair-shoe guy, thinking, one more pair wouldn’t hurt. My trusted Rockport Oxcford blacks could do with a companion. I remember my older brother asking me, when on a hike in the mountains of Jotunheimen: “Are you really wearing those dress shoes up here in the mud?”

They are comfy, but I did need something else. But going online for Nikes was doomed impossible:

The bay of confusion

As soon as you type in “Nike” in the search engines of the ebay, you get confusing results of “Nike shoes is always a little small” and “the Nikes fits as advertised”.

The three size charts below is, in that order, what Nike presents to the EU (first screen shot) and the US market and then the most common Nike size chart found on Ebay.

I do not live in the US or the EU, but Norway has agreed to the EØS agreement, so lets stick with EU, for this argument’s sake.

The facts

I got confused really fast shopping for Nikes online. So I measured my foot. It is 27,5 centimeters. And that translates mostly into 10,5 US and 43,5 EU. Mostly. Not in the Nike world.

I would recommened for your feet length to order your shoes in.

EU 44.5 US 10.5

Please let me know if I can assist further.

Regards

Marcus Nike.com Customer Service

Marcus from Nike was spot on here. But how he deduced this answer is a puzzle, because nothing but the US size makes any sense.

I eventually bought my 10.5 sized Nikes, and they fit like a glove. But it does state in bold print that they are 28,5 centimeters. And that sounds fishy knowing what I now know.

It’s always more accurate to convert your size using the centimeters in the size chart. Some Ebay Nike seller

So, the lesson learned for me is that I now know a lot about shoe sizes and a lot about my own shoe size. But I know nothing about how that knowledge compares to Nike’s reality. So that brand will have to remain the off-line option for me.

So Nike, if you read this and want to respond: Please send me an email to bjorn.erik.pedersen at gmail.com. I’m intrigued by this puzzling stupidity.