The table bulk buyers actually need
Retail conversion charts are written for one shopper with one foot. A bulk buyer needs the same information flattened into a planning tool: which US sizes my channel will ask for, and which EU steps inside the carton answer them. That is the table below. It is labeled approximate everywhere the desk uses it, because footwear brands grade differently - treat it as the shared language for planning, and treat the spec sheet as the document that binds each program.
| EU | US men | US women | Foot length (cm, approx) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 36 | 4 | 5.5-6 | 22.5-23 |
| 37 | 4.5-5 | 6-6.5 | 23-23.5 |
| 38 | 5.5-6 | 7-7.5 | 24-24.5 |
| 39 | 6.5-7 | 8-8.5 | 24.5-25 |
| 40 | 7-7.5 | 8.5-9 | 25-25.5 |
| 41 | 8-8.5 | 9.5-10 | 26-26.5 |
| 42 | 8.5-9 | 10-10.5 | 26.5-27 |
| 43 | 9.5-10 | 11 | 27.5-28 |
| 44 | 10-10.5 | 11.5-12 | 28-28.5 |
| 45 | 11-11.5 | 12.5-13 | 29-29.5 |
The background theory - why three scales exist and what the centimeter column is for - is in the note on how shoe size charts work. This note stays on the buying side: how the rows turn into a carton, and how the carton turns into a listing.
What the stock list covers, in both languages
The partner's stock list runs EU 36-45 across casual sneakers and sandals, with several runs at 36-41 for women's and kids' programs. Translated by the table, those bands answer most of a US-facing range: the 40-45 rows read as roughly US men's 7 to 11.5, and the 36-41 rows read as roughly US women's 5.5 to 10. Read the sample lots the same way. A cushioned everyday runner listed at EU 40-45 is a core men's band on a US page; a trail-style runner at EU 36-41 covers the women's band; a kids' chunky sneaker at 36-41 serves older kids in the sizes their parents actually buy. The live list behind these samples is confirmed at RFQ - see the stock route for how the list is presented. Sandals on the list follow the same bands, so a warm-weather program reads off the same rows without a separate conversion.
Inside each carton the sizes are not stacked randomly. A carton holds 12 pairs in a size run, typically stepping 1-2-3-3-2-1 across the six size steps of the run - the middle sizes are deepest because that is where feet cluster, whatever scale prints on your storefront. When you plan a first order in cartons, you are ordering that shape of demand, so it is worth reading the run before you read the label.
Why the columns overlap - and why that is useful
The US columns carry half sizes and the EU column does not, so the mapping is a row, not a formula. A customer who measures into the EU 41 band is somewhere in US men's 8-8.5 or US women's 9.5-10, and the honest product page quotes the range. The foot-length column is the referee: it is the same number regardless of scale, so when two listings disagree, centimeters settle it. That is also the fastest way to handle a marketplace ticket - answer with the row, not with a defense of one cell in it. The same row discipline works in planning conversations: when a buyer asks whether the list can serve a women's range, the desk answers with the bands - which rows the 36-41 runs cover, and what that reads as on a women's scale - rather than with a single number. Rows carry their approximation honestly; single numbers pretend to a precision the table does not have.
Planning the first order around the run
Cartons translate into US demand through the foot-length profile of your market, not through arithmetic on the label. The practical sequence the desk walks with a first-time buyer: pick the styles, read the run each style ships in, then check that the deepest steps of the run land where your market's feet cluster by the table. A carton's run is deepest in the middle steps, and for most adult bands that is exactly where demand sits - which is why the stock route works so well for a first order. Where a market sits at the edge of a band - a taller or shorter-than-typical customer base - the run matters more than the total carton count, because the edges are where both shortages and leftovers accumulate.
Boundary customers deserve a deliberate plan rather than an accident. The foot-length bands overlap at every EU step, so a slice of any market can honestly wear two sizes; the desk's advice is to stock the boundary the tie-breaker rule favors and let the product page teach the check. That single decision - which boundary to weight - does more for sell-through than a deeper overall order.
For sellers: cartons in EU, listings in your customer's scale
The convention that causes the fewest problems: keep the carton, the packing list and the program sheet in EU sizes, and translate once, at the listing layer. Decide the display scale per channel - US men's for one storefront, US women's for another, both columns on a chart beside the size selector - and never mix scales inside one dropdown. If your channel needs carton marking in a different format for a warehouse or distributor, say so in the brief; marking is settled on the program sheet before sealing, not after. Wholesale buyers deserve the same clarity in the other direction: a line on the program sheet naming the display scale the listing layer will use, so the packing documents and the storefront can be checked against each other without translation disputes later.
One discipline keeps this honest over time: whenever a customer question exposes a gap between the EU run and the US page, fix the chart, not the carton. The mapping is approximate and worth stating as such - customers forgive an approximate range far more readily than a silent relabel. An approximate range that ships right beats an exact-looking figure that ships wrong. Reference ranges on the buying side - cartons, minimums, dispatch - are on the MOQ and lead time page, and a program can be started from the request form with the display scale you plan to use already named. The women's half of the mapping gets a closer look in men's to women's conversion basics.