Every January 23rd, everyone is expected to take off their shoes and socks and grab a tape measure. Why? To observe National Measure Your Feet Day, of course! While this holiday originally began so that people could compare and brag about the size of their feet, it has since become a holiday for people to find out their true shoe size.

It’s estimated that 3 out of every 5 people are wearing the wrong shoe size. Some are squeezing their feet into shoes that are too tight, while others are wearing shoes that are too big. Either way, it’s a significant problem—a problem that this holiday attempts to remedy every year when it rolls around.

The History of National Measure Your Feet Day

According to some sources, this holiday goes back to an Icelandic tradition where people measure their feet. Although we’re a bit skeptical of this explanation, we concede that it’s plausible. If that is the case, then this holiday has been around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. If it’s not, then we’re afraid we don’t know who invented this holiday or when it was invented.

What we do know is that modern shoe sizes can be determined by an instrument known as the Brannock Device, which was invented by Charles F. Brannock in 1925, and he made improvements to it over the next two years. Of course, people can always measure their own shoe sizes using nothing but a piece of paper, a tape measure, and a pen.

Some Interesting Facts About Feet

Let’s take a quick look at some “foot-related” facts that we think everyone will appreciate. In honor of National Measure Your Feet Day, we would like to humbly present these facts to anyone interested in learning about them.

• There are 26 different bones in your feet.
• The average foot contains over a quarter of a million sweat glands.
• The sweat glands in the feet can produce over a half-pint of perspiration each day.
• It’s been estimated that 1 out of every 4 people in the United States has flat feet.

Observing National Measure Your Feet Day

People can observe this holiday by taking the time to measure their feet accurately or, if they prefer, go to a professional to have them measured. Wearing the wrong size shoes is the number one problem that people have with their feet, and wearing the correct shoe size is important for solving it. People should also use the hashtag #MeasureYourFeetDay on social media to spread the word about this holiday.