Selecting the correct size for your sneakers is crucial, especially when it comes to renowned brands like Nike and PUMA. Our comprehensive guide on Nike vs. PUMA sizing is designed to help you navigate the complexities of shoe dimensions, offering insights into both the length and width variations of these leading sportswear labels.
However, it's important to remember that not every sneaker fits the same, even within the same brand. For instance, some of Nike or PUMA's best running shoes might offer a snugger fit compared to their lifestyle counterparts like a pair of the best Air Force 1s from Nike. This variation is often due to the design intention behind performance footwear, which typically features a narrower construction for a secure, supportive fit during physical activities.
Despite these subtleties, our guide is crafted to streamline your selection process, making it easier to find that perfect fit. Join us as we delve into the detailed landscape of Nike vs. PUMA sizing, highlighting key differences and similarities to guide your next sneaker purchase.
How should their shoes fit?
Before we proceed to compare the size charts of Nike and PUMA, it's crucial to understand the fundamentals of how your shoes should fit.
Clarks' standard guideline advises leaving approximately one finger's width of space between your longest toe and the front end of your shoe. It's important to ensure that the natural bend of the sneaker aligns with the ball of your foot.
While there may be some variations depending on the specific type of shoes, this guidance generally applies to most Nike or PUMA sneakers you may be considering purchasing.
If you can slip your finger comfortably into the space behind your heel, then the chances are you've gone too big. If there's no gap at all, then you may need to go up half a size.
Given it can be quite tricky to figure out what size to opt for in the first place, we'd suggest checking out our guide to measuring your shoe size after you've finished reading this article.
So far, so good. Things do get a little trickier though when you start to consider the width, as brands tend not to explicitly state the width of their trainers online.
To determine whether you've got the right size, Clarks' advice is to ensure the widest part of your foot (the ball area and metatarsal bones) fits within the widest part of your shoe, with enough room spare to stop your foot from being compressed inwards. If your shoes are slightly too wide, you may find your heel lifting out as you walk, and/or your foot sliding around inside your shoe when you're on the move.
Keeping all these factors in mind, let's now take a closer look at how Nike and PUMA compare in terms of their shoe sizing...
Nike vs PUMA size guide
Straight off the bat, Nike and PUMA shoes appear to be similar in length according to our direct comparison of their size charts below.
A US 10 at Nike and PUMA equates to a UK 9 in both instances. However, you'll notice a US 10 at Nike works out as an EU 44. By contrast, a 10 at PUMA is just 43 in EU sizes.
This means you may find PUMA shoes are slightly shorter than Nike trainers. That said, the difference is so incredibly small that you may not notice a difference when the shoes are on your feet.
As touched on earlier, it's harder to provide a direct comparison between the width of Nike and PUMA shoes as this can often vary depending on the purpose of the sneaker.
For example, a pair of high-performance PUMA Fast-R NITRO Elite running shoes are said to give a sock-like fit. whereas a pair of CA Pro Classics, which are designed more to be worn on a day-to-day basis, may offer slightly more room width-wise.
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Which shoes fit wide feet?
If you're looking for shoes that provide a comfortable fit for wide feet, you might be wondering which options from Nike and PUMA are the best choices.
Nike offers a range of sneakers specifically designed for wider feet. Notably, they have a selection of Extra Wide shoes, among which the Pegasus 40s sit. These sneakers are available in both regular and extra wide fit options, ensuring you can find the perfect fit for your feet.
The selection is quite limited overall though. So, to help you out, Nike provides information on when you should look for a pair of wide-fitting shoes. Nike says if, for example, you have size 8 feet that measure 3.9" or above in width, then you may find wide-fit shoes more comfortable.
Upon searching, it doesn't appear as though PUMA offers the same kind of wide-fitting shoes as Nike does. However, some online forums suggest that the PUMA Clyde All-Pro basketball shoes are one of the best options PUMA has when it comes to wider-fitting footwear.
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Which shoes run narrow?
As touched on earlier, athletic, performance-based shoes often fit slightly narrower than sneakers designed for everyday wear. Which models should you look out for in particular though?
On Nike's side, it claims its range of Free trainers can, at times, feel tighter than alternative Nike models due to the internal webbing used in the collection to keep your feet in place for a more secure lock-in.
There's a chance you could encounter this with its Flyknit range as well. In our experience, Flyknit shoes often feel quite snug at first as the knitted fabric wraps tightly around your feet.
By contrast, it seems to be widely acknowledged online that PUMA shoes tend to fit slightly narrower than you might expect, which is likely to do with them being a tad smaller length-wise.
This seems to run fairly consistently across all of PUMA's trainers, so it's hard to pinpoint a specific model to look out for if you're looking for or trying to avoid narrow-fitting shoes.
So, our final piece of advice when buying new Nike or PUMA sneakers is to always factor in the slightly smaller size of PUMA trainers when trying to pick between the two brands.
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And that's it! Hopefully, this guide will help keep shoe-size mishaps at bay going forward, at least when it comes to Nike and PUMA sneakers.
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