Stupid question time! How do you buy shoes?

Depends on the kind of shoe tbh. Apart from buying the same brand as the doll, which is your best bet, my options include commissioning shoes (if fabric or leather) and measuring a dolls feet precisely and hoping all goes well. Sometimes I've ordered a cheaper pair of shoes I don't really want - just to check whether the same brand, albeit more expensive pair is going to fit.

 

I'm cheap when it comes to shoes. I either buy them used or I make them myself out of felt and craft foam. You'd be surprised at how much cross over there is in terms of non BJD shoes that fit dolls too. If you don't want to pay $25 and up for doll shoes there are non BJD shoes out there that might fit.

Two of my BJD dolls are wearing cute plastic shoes from a kid's doll that came out a decade ago. As it happens clothes from these dolls fit slim minis pretty well and the shoes fit my bigger MSD girls very well.

Measure the feet, then go looking on Ebay for dolls that have a similar sized foot. Usually I can find doll shoes that will fit mine okay that way.

Minifees excepted so far because they have weird sized little feet that won't fit anything I've tried thus far...

 

First, if possible, I buy shoes that are offered by the company I buy the doll from (i.e. I buy shoes for my Iplehouse doll from Iplehouse). Yes they are often more expensive, but will fit.

Second, I look online/on DoA for recommendations ("Shoes that fit Iplehouse FID"). A lot of size/type specific company threads have that information, often in the starting post.

Third, I buy randomly shoes from Taobao. I check the cm measurements/look for specific companies and whether they are mentioned. That works most of the time as well.

I do not buy random non-BJD doll shoes (usually don't fit, scale is off). However, sometimes one can be lucky. Like said in step 2, usually others will have tried it already and can report.

 

Pretty much half buy from company, half make sure I have a list of my doll's foot sizes that I can cross check with shoe measurements given on site. Alice's Collections, for example, usually have length and width listed.

 

I'm speaking base on 1/4 doll collector experience. I have 4 dolls, and don't have any plan to purchase more in near future (1-2 year or so)

Luckily my dolls only use 2 size of shoe, one is Volks msd size and the other is Minifee size. When you figure out what to looking for, it will be easier, especially with a larger company that many people also collecting.

When shop for shoes I tend to check whether it fit 1/4 Volks/Minifee or not. My main supplier for Volks size are Volks (indeed), Blue Fairy, Soom and some Taobao shop that using Volks dolls as their presenter. The same applicable with Minifee size.

So, in conclusion
- check your doll shoes size
- compare to find the same size from any larg company available.
- when looking for shoes, look for those size you have in data.

I hope this help

 

Well, I have bought shoes from Dollmore before and they fit many, many different dolls in my collection. Dollmore, Luts, Leeke etc are usually very good about giving the measurements of their shoes, especially the inner measurements. So I measure my doll before buying and buy shoes from wherever I like. That usually works out. There are some dolls with odd feet, for example very broad feet which are more difficult to find shoes for. I've used with this very helpful site: Tricky Feet

 

bootleg chinese TAKARA Licca strap flats fit the OBITSU 26'es feet rather well;

 

It's based on shoe size like humans, but some brands/styles have more room. When I bought mine from Gem of Doll, I asked how their shoes fit dolls and they gave me up to a cm measurement. Here's the chart from Alice's collections.

Before ordering, it's important knowing the size of your doll foot, and look for correct size shoes, in each of our shoes description page, you can see the inner length of the shoes, we recommend the inner length to be a little longer than your doll foot.
Most of 70cm dolls foot is 8-8.5cm long, you can choose the 70cm size shoes with 9cm inner length.
1/3 SD girl dolls foot length is usually 6.5cm - 7cm, you can choose 1/3 size shoes with 7.5cm inner length.
1/3 SD boy dolls foot length is usually 7.5cm - 8cm, you can choose 1/3 size shoes with 8.5cm inner length.
1/4 MSD girl dolls foot length is usually 5cm - 5.5cm, you can choose 1/4 size shoes with 6.0cm inner length.
1/4 MSD boy dolls foot length is usually 5.5cm - 6cm, you can choose 1/4 size shoes with 6.5cm inner length.
1/6 size shoes are for dolls foot of around 3.5cm in length.

 

Shoes...... this is a problem for me often. The boys not so much, they are all easy. They boys give me no issues finding shoes. Same goes for the YOSD sized dolls. Girls are a different story! I'm expecting another 1/4 girl any day now, and I don't even know what measurement to look for exactly. Maybe I will be lucky and some I have at home might fit, we will see. My 1/3 girls are very tricky as all 4 of them have flat feet, all of them are different sizes. On the upside, if a pair doesn't fit one girl, it might fit another. I don't buy many outfits before shoes unless a basic shoe color like black, white or brown will look good. Sometimes, I find a pair of shoes I like, then make an outfit around those shoes! My Angel Philia is also tricky, I do grab up about any pair from other Angel Philia collectors when they are looking to sell second-hand shoes. It's giving me reason to try to start make some on my own in the near future. They probably will not be too pretty, but I'm sure if I try for enough years they will become better.

 

@MaleficentMrsofEvil Yes, I'll be there eventually. I'm trying to get eye-making down right now, but shoes are on the horizon! Do you have a link for the book? I'm interested!

 

@MaleficentMrsofEvil No, I've gotten by all these years without using Prime, but thanks so much for the offer. I'd really be happy to pay for a book if it's useful though, I'd love for anyone willing to put in the work to help others get a little something for their efforts, so it's not a problem for me. I really appreciate the offer a lot though! Thanks so much for sharing the link!!!

 

@MaleficentMrsofEvil It's fine. If you're going to, or are into shoe crafting, I don't quite know what the name for what style this is but you might be interested. Gem of Doll uses a base shoe they build on for cost effectiveness and they're very easy to figure out from the photos. I had to replace 1/3 size Brocks left one and making a new one was easy because I had the same type. They might inspire you or give you a good idea.

 

I've found the best shoes on mandarake.