The list of ailments is long: corns, calluses, blisters, trapped nerves; toes so squished they look like claws. An actual condition called "mallet toe."

It's what comes from years of jamming ample feet into not-so-ample shoes. Oh, don't say you would never do that. According to a recent poll by the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, nearly four in 10 women buy shoes knowing they don't fit. Two in 10 men do the same.

And in recent decades, feet have only gotten longer and wider. According to the National Shoe Retailers Association, 30 years ago the best-selling shoe size for women was 71/2. Now it's 81/2. For men, it used to be 91/2. Now it's 101/2.

Theories for the ever-spreading footprint abound. Some say the sturdy shoes our mothers put us in at an early age fostered growth. Others say it's all the pizza that teens chow down, blaming hormone-laced cheese. Michael Weiss, Nordstrom's national retail director for women's shoes, says it's a simple shoe-to-foot algorithm: Once the comfort shoe came on the scene - the clog, the Earth shoe, the recently ubiquitous Crocs - "women's feet began to spread," he says, and getting back into pointy-toed struttin' shoes becomes a doggone squeeze.

Alas, the world of big-size shoes has hobbled to catch up to the big-footed.

Long overdue, we say. It's time to put aside your painful podiatric issues. Stylin' shouldn't stop at your ankle bone.