I was at a party on Saturday night and I learned the most perfectly useless bit of trivia.  I was talking to a shoe designer and it turns out that almost all women’s shoes in North America are fitted by the same woman (i.e., they’re designed for her feet).

She apparently is a size 6 (average North American size is 8.5 or so) and has the “perfect” foot - it’s exactly on the median of all dimensions and they’re highly sensitive to touch.  She only does North American feet as Asian feet are flatter and European’s are shorter.

She spends her days cabbing it (too risky to walk) to different shoe studios to fit their shoes and tell them if they’re too tight, etc.  In the summer, you have to adjust her suggestions as even her perfect feet swell in New York’s heat - and you’d better get her before the afternoon as apparently she can be a little worn out by then.

I’m not making this up - even though it is getting eerily similar to the Seinfeld episode about George being a hand model...