Gazette, The (Colorado Springs): Sole SEARCHING/ Shoe shopping is no Cinderella story for women with

I don't really think about how big my feet are until I have to go shopping for shoes. About two years ago, I saw the perfect pair of boots in the window of an Italian shoe store in New York City. I asked the slight Italian salesman with the slicked-back hair if he had anything in my size, which is 11 1/2.

He looked at me incredulously.

"No, I don'a tink that exists," he said.

"Oh, yes," I said. "It exists. There are some women who wear a size 13."

"Well," he said, stroking his pencil-thin mustache. "I don' ever wanna meet thatta woman."

I fought the urge to jump over the counter and stomp on his face, proving to him that size 11 1/2 feet actually exist.

And not only do they exist, but the number of women who wear larger-than-average shoe sizes grew from 11 percent in 1987 to 37 percent in 2000.

But many shoe retailers have not or will not carry sizes larger than a 10.

Shoe retailers "are going to have to realize that (size 11) is becoming more of a normal size," said the Phoenix Mercury's Lisa Harrison, who has worn a size 11 since college.

When Harrison, 32, was growing up in Kentucky, there wasn't much of a shoe selection. She and her sister sometimes wore men's shoes. They shopped at a pawn shop and Payless Shoe Source, which carries up to a 12 in women's shoes.

Being in the Women's National Basketball Association, however, does give Harrison something of an advantage.

"A lot of my teammates and players on other teams have a lot of 'insider' information on where to shop for bigger shoes," she said. "I get to work with taller girls who, in turn, have bigger feet."

If you don't have "insider" information, shoe shopping is frustrating - especially for young girls who grow out of a size 10 and want to wear the same styles as their friends.

Yvonne Bowling of Tempe, Ariz., said her first "scary" shoe shopping experience was at age 7, when she had grown out of kids' shoes and had to buy a pair for her first communion.

"My mother wouldn't let me buy women's shoes," the 50-year-old Bowling said. "I was the only kid wearing sandals (at communion). That's when my therapy began."

Today, Bowling does most of her shoe shopping at Nordstrom, which started out as a shoe store in the 1960s. Nordstrom carries women's shoes up to size 14 in most styles. It's one of the few department stores to cater to this market. ) The store's sales staff will contact regular customers when a shoe shipment comes in. With size 11 or larger, it's all about getting to the store before everyone else does. (The closest Nordstrom's to Colorado Springs is at the Park Meadows Mall in Littleton.)

"Across the board, those sizes sell quickly," said Cindy Gulla, manager of women's shoes at Nordstrom in Scottsdale Fashion Square. "In this market, it's the size that sells the shoe."

And these women are willing to pay big bucks for style and comfort. When I finally found boots in my size at another store, I paid $170 for them.

Some women even go to extremes. Bowling actually had Nordstrom fly in a pair of shoes from Miami.

If Nordstrom and Payless can do it, why can't other retailers?

"Shoe retailers are very afraid to venture out and buy bigger sizes," said Barbara Thornton, president and founder of designershoes.com.

The industry isn't convinced the oversize market is a lucrative one. In the shoe business, it's all about numbers, and retailers such as Nine West and the major department stores prefer to concentrate on the size 7 to 10 market because those sizes are easy to sell.

"In Las Vegas, you're going to bet on numbers that are going to win," said Bill Boetge, president of the National Shoe Retailers Association. "If you're playing roulette, and you know 8 1/2 is a winner, you bet on 8 1/2."

That's because 8 1/2 is the average shoe size worn by American women. Go to a clearance sale or an outlet store, and that's all you'll see on the racks.

But retailers are just part of the problem, said Thornton, who wears a size 11 1/2. Women who wear larger sizes often don't know where to look and aren't vocal enough about their needs.

"Until somebody steps up to the plate and is willing to put their money down for a size 12, these shoes will not exist."

Resources

Although most stores don't carry shoes above size 10 in their stores, you may be able to find them online at designershoes.com.

CELEBRITY 'BIGFOOTS'

Oprah Winfrey: 10 Geena Davis: 11 1/2 Nicole Kidman: 11-12 V

Venus Williams: 11 Uma Thurman: 11 Lindsay Davenport: 11