Youth soccer cleat size chart

Conversions are approximate and vary between manufacturers. The ages are a rough guide only — foot length at a given age varies enormously, which is exactly why you measure rather than buying by age.

How to measure the foot properly

1. Measure late in the day. Feet swell over a day, and you want the larger measurement — that is the foot that has to fit at the end of a game.
2. Put a soccer sock on first. A thick over-the-calf sock adds real volume, and that is what will be in the cleat.
3. Stand them on a sheet of paper against a wall, heel touching it, with their weight on the foot. Sitting gives a shorter reading, and a flat foot in particular lengthens under load.
4. Mark the longest toe — which is not always the big toe — and measure heel to mark in centimeters.
5. Measure both feet and use the larger. Most people have one foot slightly bigger; buying for the smaller one is a blister.

Then add about a centimeter — a thumb's width — for growing room, and look up that total in the chart. That is the size to order.

How each brand's junior sizing actually runs

The chart gets you close. This table is the correction, and it is the part that actually saves a return.

The one rule: do not size up to make them last

This is the most expensive mistake in youth cleats and it feels like the frugal choice, which is why it is so common.

A soccer cleat has a stud plate with a defined shape, and that plate has to sit under the right parts of the foot. In an oversized cleat the foot slides forward, so the studs are in the wrong place, the heel lifts on every stride and the toes hit the end on every stop. The result is blisters, lost first touches, and in a bad case a rolled ankle.

One centimeter of growing room, no more. Then replace them. At these ages you will be replacing every six to nine months regardless — see when to replace kids' soccer cleats.

C sizes and Y sizes

US kids' shoe sizing runs in two blocks and the changeover confuses everybody. Little-kid sizes carry a C (child) and run up to 13C. Then the numbering restarts at 1Y (youth, sometimes written as big-kid) and runs upward. So 13C is immediately followed by 1Y, which is one size larger, not eleven sizes smaller.

Around 6Y or 7Y, most brands' junior ranges end and adult sizing takes over. A 7Y is roughly an adult men's 7, which is where a lot of twelve and thirteen-year-olds land. Worth measuring rather than assuming — plenty of twelve-year-olds still fit a big-kid size better than an adult small.

Sizing turf and indoor shoes

Same chart, two differences in how to apply it.

• Both should fit snugger than cleats. There is no stud plate anchoring the foot, so a loose fit means the foot slides on every change of direction.
• Both tend to run more forgiving in width at the same nominal size, because no rigid plate defines the footprint. A kid pinched in a Mercurial cleat is often fine in a Mercurial turf shoe.

See the turf shoe picks and indoor picks.

When you cannot measure — buying online for a gift

Honest answer: do not buy cleats as a gift unless you know the size and the foot width. It is the one piece of soccer gear where getting it wrong means it cannot be used at all, and a cleat that nearly fits is worse than no cleat.

If you want to buy footwear for someone else's kid, ask the parent for the centimeter measurement rather than a shoe size — that survives brand differences. Otherwise buy a ball, which fits everybody at a given age. See the gift ideas.