The World's Largest Retail Shoe Store

To a true shoe-a-holic, there’s no such thing as a shoe store that’s too large or one which has too many styles of shoes. Shoe lovers who consider shoe shopping to be more of a religion than a hobby will be happy to find out that the World's Largest Shoe Store, when measured by square footage alone, is as large as the 8th largest religious cathedral in the world.

The Largest Shoe Store in the World

In terms of both store square footage and selection, the record-breaking largest shoe store in the world is the Level Shoe District store located in the Dubai Mall. Features of the Level Shoe District's world's largest shoe store include:

• 96,000 square feet
• Shoes from 250 designers
• 40 in-store boutiques including a Dior, Louis Vuitton, and Roger Viver boutiques
• In-store pop-up boutiques for hot trends and designers
• Shoe personalization
• Limited edition merchandise
• Customization Bar
• Shoe designer appearances in-store
• Women’s VIP Lounge
• Shoe Tattoo Bar
• Special events live entertainment
• Proprietary designs

Although the Level Shoe District is the world’s largest standalone store, there are many stores with shoe departments that make claims to be the world’s largest as well.

The World's Largest Shoe Department

Selfridge's earned an official listing in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2012 for having the Largest Men's Footwear Department in the World. Guinness gave official "world's largest" status to the 15,000 square foot men's shoe department which is big enough to hold 72,000 pairs of men's shoes in 3,200 different styles which were created by 250 different designers. If male shoe shoppers can't find what they want from that selection, there's also a made-to-order custom-designed shoe service provided as well. 

For a few years, Selfridge's laid claim to having the world's largest shoe department overall, with over 100,000 pairs of shoes in 5,000 different styles from more than 120 shoe brands and shoe designers available at the 35,000 square foot shoe department inside its London flagship store. This department store shoe department is so large that it even has its own restaurant for hardcore shoe-a-holics who don't want to interrupt their marathon shoe shopping session for something as mundane as a meal.

These shoe stats, Selfridge's claimed, made its shoe department the largest in the world. No other department store in the world disputed that world's largest claim...until 2012.

The World's Largest Shoe Floor

Macy's stripped Selfridge's of its World's Largest Shoe Department claim in 2012 when it transformed an entire second floor of its New York Flagship store into a shoe department, which it refers to as its shoe floor. The 39,000 square feet of shoe selling space beat Selfridge's by 4,000 feet, although it was never officially announced that Macy's designed the shoe floor because of the conscious intention to own the world's largest title. 

Reportedly there are more than 400 employees working on the Macy's world's largest shoe floor at any given time to help shoe shoppers sift through the 280,000 pairs of shoes that are warehoused on site. And not to be outdone by any shoe department across the pond, the Macy's world's largest shoe department also has its own cafe, which serves Starbucks coffees, champagne, and handcrafted chocolates, among other "specially-curated" menu items.