<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Across medieval Europe, aristocrats repeatedly set off fashion fads and scandals by wearing poulaines, shoes whose flamboyantly elongated pointed toes could stretch far beyond the natural length of their feet.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/donald-trump" rel="" target="" title="President Donald Trump"><span>President Donald Trump</span></a><span>'s Oval Office, a different stylistic choice caught the public's eye this week: photos of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/jd-vance" rel="" target="" title="Vice President JD Vance"><span>Vice President JD Vance</span></a><span> show them wearing black dress shoes with visible gaps between the shoe's collar and the wearer's foot, leaving the ankle to dangle loose in the opening like the clapper in a bell.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>President Donald Trump has taken to giving the male officials around him new shoes, </span><a href="https://www.wsj.com/style/fashion/trump-florsheim-shoes-tucker-carlson-jd-vance-bessent-448567ab?" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><span>the Wall Street Journal</span></a><span> reported this week - specifically, mid-priced Florsheim oxfords, ordered on the spur of the moment and then faithfully worn by the recipients.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>LIVE UPDATES:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/us-israel-iran-war-live-updates-trump-netanyahu-how-long-will-the-war-last/3a066ef3-fe97-4b15-8222-982b2e91de3f" target="_blank"><strong><span>Australia responds after being snubbed in Trump's cry for help</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But the presidentially approved footwear seen on Rubio and Vance, said the longtime menswear expert Josh Peskowitz, is "clearly too big".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Journal reported that, in Vance's account, he, Rubio and an unnamed fellow politician specifically gave the president their shoe sizes: 13, 11.5 and 7, respectively.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"You can tell a lot about a man by his shoe size," Vance quoted Trump as saying.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/male-shoe-anxiety-hits-oval-office/78564fb8-5679-41c0-9c6a-1e2fe38b250a" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>What you can't tell from a man's shoe size - especially from his declared shoe size - is whether his shoes will fit.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Despite the neatly marked mechanical precision of the Brannock device, male shoe sizes have a phantasmic quality, as inconsistent product sizing and varied expectations about comfort collide with men's vanity and anatomical folklore.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The bigger the shoe, belief has it, the bigger the man.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Studies have shown that shoe sizes have no correlation to penile length.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But as when Rubio and Trump taunted each other about the size of their hands on the 2016 primary campaign trail, one body part stands in for another, and for masculinity in general.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>And men can be aspirational or loose with the facts about their shoe size, because shoes themselves are so variable.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/us-israel-iran-war-crisis-talks-over-petrol-as-middle-east-war-expands-after-oil-island-hit/7094b0cf-4f3a-4f69-a306-51d29beb6634" target="_blank"><strong><span>Crackdown to hit fuel check website after petrol stations caught lying</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Shoe sizes have tended to creep up in the last few decades, and different makers have different standards, so one brand's size 9 might be another's 10, or even larger.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Converse Chuck Taylor All Star runs, by the company's own account, a half-size looser than other Converse sneakers do. (Converse declined to comment on its separate sizing scales.)</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Size discrepancies within a single brand are usually due to quality control issues, said Elizabeth Semmelhack, director and senior curator of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, Canada.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Within brands, the most common issue is individual shoe styles being manufactured in different places," Semmelhack said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Men are not always at fault for miscalculating their shoe size.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>There's never been one standardised way to define shoe sizes, Semmelhack said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Before footwear was mass-produced, shoemakers crafted their products for individual customers.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Industrialisation made it much more difficult to find a perfect fit.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It also behooves shoe brands to devise their own sizing systems, Semmelhack said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"While it might be great for a customer to know that they fit into a pair of men's 11 across brands, it is more advantageous for brands to offer more unique fits that might help them garner market advantage," she said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The style of shoe can also explain variations in shoe size.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Formal leather shoes are known to stretch, whereas athletic sneakers may call for a slightly larger and cushier footbed.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Dress shoes are made to be broken in, said Justin FitzPatrick, who owns J.FitzPatrick Footwear and runs a blog about men's shoes.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>They should feel snug in the beginning and will loosen with wear.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/middle-east-travel-warning-for-australians-do-not-transit-via-doha-qatar/c70983d6-e79c-475a-a457-2deae152dea6" rel="" target="" title="Fresh warning for Aussie travellers amid widening conflict"><strong><span>Fresh warning for Aussie travellers amid widening conflict</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"An experienced dress shoe wearer knows they may feel a bit restrictive, might get some blisters, but they will eventually soften up, open up and feel like butter," FitzPatrick said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Florsheim does warn shoppers on its website: "If you're between two sizes, choose the larger one. Keep in mind, athletic shoes usually run half a size larger than dress or casual shoes — so if you're a size 10 in athletic shoes, you'll likely be a 9.5 in dress or casual shoes."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But Florsheims aren't the shoes they used to be, FitzPatrick said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The brand is no longer made in the US and has outsourced its production to Cambodia, China, India, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Still, Florsheim shoes tend to fit true to size, Peskowitz said, and while the style Trump has been giving people is "typically more narrow", that wouldn't account for such a big gap in the shoes.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"There is a certain juvenile reasoning that might make men want to wear bigger shoes that I won't repeat here," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"But generally no. I don't see people wearing the wrong shoe size as any kind of fashion statement."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Where did Vance and Rubio go astray?</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Did they misremember their sizes? Did they try to get them pre-loosened rather than letting them stretch? Do they prefer the ideal of the feet they wish they had to the reality rattling around inside their new shoes? Or have they simply fallen victim to the oscillation issues plaguing American footwear?</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I wouldn't put this on Florsheim," said Jake Woolf, a menswear content creator.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It seems just like a skill issue and/or user error."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><em><span></span></em><em><strong><span>NEVER MISS A STORY:</span></strong></em><span> </span><em><span>Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.</span></em></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><ul><li><em><strong><span>Download the 9NEWS App here via</span></strong></em><span> </span><a href="https://apps.apple.com/au/app/9news/id1010533727" target="_blank" title=""><em><strong><span>Apple</span></strong></em></a><span> </span><em><strong><span>and</span></strong></em><span> </span><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nineNewsAlerts.nine.com&amp;hl=en_AU&amp;pli=1" target="_blank" title=""><em><strong><span>Google Play</span></strong></em></a></li><li><em><strong><span>Make 9News your preferred source on Google by</span></strong></em><span> </span><a href="https://9.nine.com.au/8x987w" target="" title=""><em><strong><span>ticking this box here</span></strong></em></a></li><li><em><strong><span>Sign up to</span></strong></em><span> </span><a href="https://login.nine.com.au/edm?client_id=nineatnine" target="_blank" title=""><em><strong><span>our breaking newsletter here</span></strong></em></a></li></ul></div></div>