>>>I am sick of this. I am a small person (5'7") and have difficultly finding freakin' size 8 shoes. What gives? 10 years ago there was footwear-a-plenty.
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>>Count me in the "hard to buy" shoes folks. I wear a 7 extra-wide and can only find them in a few stores. My solution has been to know what those stores are and frequent them.
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>I must be out of the footwear loop. Maybe I simply need to approach the next short guy I see (who has nice shoes) and say "Where did you get those?"

Well, I can attest to the fact that Cathy's suggestion works! My feet grew 1/2 size with each child, too!

For something more practical for the male gender < s >, find a young teenager. They'll wear at least four sizes each year on their way up to the larger sizes! My almost 10 year old son wears a men's 6. My 12 year old daughter wears a women's 6.5. Of course, this only works if you're looking for the latest shoes, like Vann's skateboarding shoes for the boy, or the Adidas basketball shoes for the girl . But I can attest to the fact that we know *EVERY* athletic shoe store in town, and who has sizes and colors we need. Did you know that you can get those blasted Adidas shoes with no less than 12 colors of stripes? (Irridescent white, pearlescent white, silver, gold, pink, blue...and it's a crisis to know that Mandie wears the pink ones, but

Asking kids doesn't work very well if you need dress shoes, as most self-respecting kids think athletic shoes are appropriate for all occasions < grumble >.

I asked my brother, who wears a 6.5 to 7.5 shoe, and he says it's nearly impossible to find shoes (and he lives in New York City). He mostly buys on-line. He also said to find a good shoe store and get in good with the sales person, and have them call you when your size comes in.

Anyway, I can sympathize. Before my feet grew in each pregnancy, it was hard to find shoes. Good luck!

- della