Brannock Device^[1]

Brannock Device at shoe museum in Zlín, Czechia

The Brannock Device is a measuring instrument invented by Charles F. Brannock for measuring a person's shoe size. Brannock spent two years developing a simple means of measuring the length, width, and arch length of the human foot. He eventually improved on the wooden RITZ Stick, the industry standard of the day,^[2] patenting his first prototype in 1925^[3] and an improved version in 1927.^[1] The device has both left and right heel cups and is rotated through 180 degrees to measure the second foot. Brannock later formed the Brannock Device Company to manufacture and sell the product, and headed the company until 1992 when he died at age 89. The Smithsonian Institution has the nearly complete records of the development of the Brannock Device and subsequent marketing.^[4]

The Brannock Device Company was headquartered in Syracuse, New York, until shortly after Charles Brannock's death. Salvatore Leonardi purchased the company from the Brannock Estate in 1993, and moved manufacturing to a small factory in Liverpool, New York.

On May 31, 2018, the Syracuse minor league baseball team had a one-night promotion and rebranded as the Syracuse Devices in honor of the Brannock Device.^[5]

Sizing system

The modern Brannock device takes three measurements of each foot:

Foot length

the length from heel to the tip of the longest toe

Arch length

the length from heel to the inside of the ball of the foot, or medial metatarsophalangeal joint

Width

the width of the foot perpendicular to the length

Foot and arch lengths correspond to numeric Brannock sizes, and foot widths correspond to letter Brannock widths AAAA (narrowest) to EEEE (widest), as follows:

${\displaystyle {\text{Foot Length}}=7{\tfrac {1}{3}}{\text{ inches}}+({\text{Men's Brannock Size}}\times {\tfrac {1}{3}}{\text{ inch}})}$

${\displaystyle {\text{Arch Length}}=5{\tfrac {18}{50}}{\text{ inches}}+({\text{Men's Brannock Size}}\times {\tfrac {11}{50}}{\text{ inch}})}$

${\displaystyle {\text{Width}}=1{\tfrac {10}{16}}{\text{ inches}}+({\text{Men's Brannock Size}}\times {\tfrac {1}{8}}{\text{ inch}})+({\text{Steps Up From AAAA}}\times {\tfrac {3}{16}}{\text{ inch}})}$

Women's Brannock sizes are offset from men's by one:

${\displaystyle {\text{Women's Brannock Size}}={\text{Men's Brannock Size}}+1}$

References

Sources

• Craig, Berry. "Why the Shoe Fits." American Heritage of Invention & Technology 16, no. 1. (Summer 2000): 64.
• Davidson, Martha. "A Fitting Place for the Brannock Device Company Records." 2001.
• Lukas, Paul. Inconspicuous Consumption: An Obsessive Look at the Stuff We Take for Granted, from the Everyday to the Obscure. Three Rivers Press, 1997. ISBN 0-517-88668-5
• Brannock Device Company Records, 1925–1998
• Aeppel, Timothy, "Maker of Foot Measurer Tries to Stop Other Shoe From Dropping - On It". Wall Street Journal, Jan. 10, 2011.

External links

• The Brannock Device Co., Inc.
• Charles Brannock: MIT inventor of the Week (August 2001)
• Brannock Company history and archives
• Brannock Device, an early Design Drawing from the Smithsonian (1920s) Smithsonian Institution Libraries