POD Swim Fin Fit Finder - Find Your Fin Size Before You Order
Place your foot on paper against a wall. Mark the heel and the tip of your longest toe. Measure the distance for length. Width is measured at the widest point across the ball of the foot.
Measure straight across the side of your ankle, from the back of your heel to the front of your ankle where you'd tie your shoelaces, at the height where the fin strap sits. The easiest way is to stand with your heel against a wall, hold a book flat against the front of your ankle and measure from the wall to the book. Don't wrap a tape measure around your ankle, because that gives a much bigger number than the Fit Finder uses.
POD Swim Fin Fit Finder - Find Your Fin Size Before You Order
Why the Fit Finder Exists
So many people weren't sure what size to buy from POD. Most compared it to their shoe size or fins they'd owned from another brand. Neither works, because POD fins have their own foot pockets and their own sizes.
Give it your foot measurements or your shoe size, and the Fit Finder returns a single POD size.
No Two Fin Brands Size the Same
Before I cut the first PF1 mould, I had to know what six POD sizes should look like. Steel moulds are extremely expensive, so there was no room for guessing. The only way to find out was on the ground. I spent days in a friend's surf shop, opening every box from every brand on the market and measuring every foot pocket. I was gobsmacked. Not one brand stayed consistent from Medium to Large to Extra Large. The sizes were all over the place.
I put every measurement into Excel, and from that came the POD foot pocket scaling, which stays consistent from one size to the next. Riders often tell us the PF fins are among the best-fitting fins they've worn, and that they suit wide feet.
The research showed me something else. Everyone was treating swim fins like shoes, rounding the pocket off at the toes. A shoe has laces to adjust. A rubber fin has only stretch and fit. So I extended the POD foot pocket by about 10 mm in every size. If your foot measures 26 cm, a POD pocket for 26 cm has that extra centimetre inside it. That's a safe zone for riders with the same foot width whose toes run a little longer. In a shoe, they'd need the next size up.
There Is No Universal Shoe Size
Back then, a developer wanted more than it was worth to build a size calculator and didn't understand the reasoning behind it, so I did the research myself. I built international size guides for men and women, then looked for where they lined up. They rarely did. Shoe charts from different countries don't agree, and men's and women's charts don't match each other either. With no universal size chart to work from, I calculated my own and matched every POD fin size against it.
When the Fit Leaves a Gap
Once the sizing worked, the next question was the rider or swimmer whose ankle is narrow for their POD size. In that gap, you can't wear fins barefoot. Your foot moves around inside the rubber, and skin and rubber don't mix well. The rubbing turns into blisters, and a sore that's in salt water every session doesn't get the chance to heal and can become infected. So the Fit Finder asks for your ankle width, flags the gap and recommends fin socks for the PF1 and PF2, or heel protectors for the PF3. Every recommendation links to the product page.
Your Size in Seconds
The aim was always to make it easy. A few entries and one click, and you have your answer. No phone call or email to wait on, and no ordering on a guess, then finding out the size is wrong and paying for a return in time and money.
Built Around the Fit
We're here for the customer, and getting the fit right before the fins arrive starts there.