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The forefoot is the foot part most affected by ill-fitting shoes. Footwear fitting considers the measurements of length, width, and arch length. Toe shape has not yet been used in sizing feet and fitting shoes. This study aims to investigate the variation in toe shape, as measured by the hallux valgus angle. An automatic and reproducible hallux valgus angle measuring method using 3D foot scans with no palpation markers is proposed and applied to about half a million samples collected across North America, Europe, and Asia. The measuring method is robust and can detect the medial contour along the proximal phalanx even in extreme cases. The hallux valgus angle has a normal distribution with long tails on both sides in the general population. Large dispersions of HVA values were observed for both genders and in all three geographical regions. Practitioner summary: The hallux valgus angle has a broad distribution in the general population. Females have larger hallux valgus angles than males, and people from Asia have larger hallux valgus angles than people from North America and Europe. Shoe toe boxes should be designed to fit the actual shapes of shoppers' toes. The proposed method for measuring HVA opens a new opportunity to study the causal relationship between shoe wearing habits and HVA on a large scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, footwear brands have developed products using outdated methods and measurements, working with limited insight into the foot shapes and dimensions of their target customers. The integration of 3D scanning technology into footwear retail stores has made it possible for this research to analyze a database containing a large number of male and female 3D foot scans collected across North America, Europe, and Asia. Foot scans were classified into length classes with 5mm length increments; mean width, instep height, and heel width were calculated for each length class. This study confirms the existence of many statistically significant differences in mean foot measurements amongst the regions and between the sexes, and a large dispersion of foot measurements within each group of customers. Therefore, shoes should be developed separately for each group, region, and sex, and at least 3 shoe widths per length class are required to provide a proper fit for 90% of customers. Beyond this, our analysis asserts that a shoe designed for a single group will fit a different segment of the population in another group, and that existing last grading tables should be updated to reflect the foot dimensions of current consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]