Dr. Martens 2976

For about 3 in 10 feet. If you follow Dr. Martens's size guidance online, the 2976 fits true to size for 31% of feet. Here, true to size means the size Dr. Martens's online guidance gives you is less than a full size away from the size that fits best, with enough toe room and enough forefoot volume.

Dr. Martens's size guide lists a foot length for every size, so shoppers can match a foot measurement to a size. The 2976 comes in whole sizes only and in one width, so a different size is the only way to change the forefoot volume. In our fittings, most of the misses came from forefoot volume, not from length.

The Dr. Martens 2976 fits very similar to the Dr. Martens 1460 in forefoot volume, so the results are very similar to the 1460 boot's. Here is where every foot landed in the 2976 when we followed Dr. Martens's size chart.

Share of 16,874 feet. Each foot is counted once.

• Right size from the size chart: 31% of feet got a size that fit both their foot length and their forefoot volume. Dr. Martens's size chart worked well for this group in the 2976.
• Sized up for more forefoot volume: For 21% of feet, the 2976 had too little forefoot volume at the size the chart gave. The 2976 has no wide version, so going up a size was the only way to get more forefoot volume, and the bigger size also adds length in front of the toes.
• Sized up for toe room only: 12% of feet had enough forefoot volume, but the length the chart gave left their toes very little room. The 2976 comes in whole sizes only, so if your foot is near the long end of a size on Dr. Martens's chart, consider the next size up.
• Sized down for less forefoot volume: For 35% of feet, the 2976 had too much forefoot volume at the size the chart gave. The 2976 has no narrow version, so a smaller size was the only way to get less forefoot volume, with less room in front of the toes.

We measured the unisex version of the 2976, not the women's version, and virtually fitted 16,874 real feet from our earlier in-store 3D foot scanners. Out of 17,311 foot scans, those 16,874 feet fall in the size range of the 2976 (US men's 4 to 16). For every foot, we followed Dr. Martens's size guidance online: the length chart, in the standard width. A difference of a full size or more between Dr. Martens's size and the size that fits best counts as a miss. These numbers show how the 2976 fits a large group of feet, not how the boot feels on your feet.