Clothing sizes are too confusing
December 6, 2004The office where I work sponsors a couple families each Christmas. Basically we get a wish list from family services that tells us what items the family wants, and then we each pick an item and purchase it for them. So one of the families has a boy about age 10, the items I picked up for him were all clothing–shoes and socks and underwear.
The problem, as I quickly realized when I was wandering around Target, is that the sizes are so completely different depending on the item and the age group. Like kid’s underwear apparently is sized by the kids age, like for this boy I was supposed to pick up size 12. Adult men’s underwear is measured by waist size, but for boys’ sizes it’s not.
And shoes are even worse. The ticket said I was supposed to pick up size 7 for the boy, but when I looked at the size 7 for boys it was way smaller than what a kid who wears size 12 underwear would use. So I realized they must mean a size 7 adult, which is what I got him. Then the socks have such a huge range–they package says it’s for shoe sizes 6 to 12. That’s way too big a range–it can’t possibly be comfortable for people at the extreme ends of that range.
Thank God I wasn’t also picking out a suit for the kid–yet another set of sizes to deal with.
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