http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/09/fashion.shoes.heels/index.html?hpt=C2
Yep, hotel stairs, uneven tiles, you name it. Teens, perpetually curious and anxious to be ‘in’, will try it…some of them novices to high heels. Sigh. I routinely balance on ice on a quarter inch of steel, and I think this fashion is risky to the max.
To paraphrase P.T. Barnum, you will never go broke underestimating public taste.
Those are, quite honestly, some of the ugliest shoes I’ve ever seen.
Because of ankle problems, I’ve never worn heels at all. Or, for that matter balanced on ice on a quarter inch of steel. Of course, I’ve never been really interested in fashion, either, so I really can’t understand trends! (Notices shirt she’s wearing is at least 20 years old….)
I like how the first one provides its own bandages. It’s actually not so bad to look at. But the one unrecognizable as a foot—I take exception to. That’s got to hurt. What kills me is that the people getting hurt are popping ligaments in accidents. That’s not a minor ankle sprain.
If you want a disturbing comparison, take a look at the x-ray of bound feet and notice the similarity in the curve of the foot. Warning: this is an actual x-ray of actual feet, in case you are squeamish.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bound_feet_(X-ray).jpg
Yeah, those things scare me.
A nineteen year old of my acquaintance — one of my wife’s college friends — already has trouble walking in flat shoes, she’s so used to heels. She’s strong and skinny, but still. Ironically, she’s sprained her ankle — while wearing flats, not heels.
You can mess up the tendons by your footwear, no kidding, and I know where she’s coming from, re my days in classrooms before the dress code went away. For the nineteen-year old, I’d recommend what Jane and I both now wear exclusively, except for dress occasions: Reebok Easytone, those spendy tennies with the exercise-ball under heel and ball of foot. She’ll swear, probably stagger, maybe fall onto her nose if she squats, and her ankles and her butt may hurt after a bit, until she stretches out the ‘shortened’ tendon at the back of the heel and develops butt muscle, but they’ll get her feet back into a human shape—and give her ankles the strength to save herself from a nice stylish cast one of these days. Jane worked 3 years trying to ‘get’ her back edges on the ice, and after one *week* of wearing these shoes began to get it—because muscle had started to wake up. After a half year in them, she’s developing muscle in her feet that may necessitate a new pair of skating boots. This is a good thing—the difference between feet that look healthy and feet that don’t have under-control flex in all directions.
A little late to the party here (vicissitudes of business travel – can’t always get access). I much prefer to be barefoot all the time (I work with teenagers, and they all know to expect me to be shoeless unless I have to be otherwise, and even then…) I have had callouses on the bottoms of my feet like you wouldn’t believe (able to walk barefoot across blacktop in August in South Carolina). I hate shoes with a violent passion, likely because I never seemed to find shoes that fit as a child – after deciding to go barefoot, I stopped spraining my ankles every three weeks.
I have recently found the closest thing to being barefoot with shoes on: http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/ – yes, they look odd (my wife hates them), but they are wonderful. They feel like gloves for your feet, allow the foot to move, and keep things (goatheads? no idea what they are – need to avoid gumballs around here) from piercing your feet (or burning them on the blacktop)
Oh, those are amazing. Martian shoes! 😉
I actually had a male friend in college who ran into the same problem when he joined the army reserves. He’d spent his whole life in cowboy boots, and army boots have a lower heel. That’s when he found out that he had shortened achilles tendons.
Our feet were designed by evolution for a certain way of walking. Of course, for most of our history, shoes were either a luxury or were worn only when condition required it, such as winter. In ancient Egypt, only the aristocracy could wear footwear, everyone else was subject to the whims of the walking surfaces.
I don’t know if I have Morton’s neuroma, as described in the article, but I get that same sensation in my right foot. I believe it’s just the result of a lot of arthritis, and since I’ve never been comfortable in cowboy boots with heels over 1-1/2″, I don’t wear much footwear that does have heels. My dress shoes are comfort-designed, my every day shoes have orthotic inserts that were fitted to my feet, plus I have a stiffener in the right shoe. All of these were prescribed by my podiatrist, and I find if i don’t wear them, I get the stinging and burning sensation through my right foot.
My ex-wife had high heels, but seldom wore them, except for when she had to be in a dress uniform, and even then, she’d wear flats over the pumps. She’d had a fracture of the 5th metatarsal, also called a “Jones Fracture” and it was agony to wear high heels.
I’ve also read that heels over 3 inches cause not only problems with the legs, but also the back because weight has to be shifted into an unnatural position.
Thanks, but if I’m dating a woman who wants to wear flats, hey, I don’t care. It’s not about the shoes, it’s about her, but I guess younger women don’t feel secure enough to wear them.
BTW, have you seen the article on the benefits of running barefoot? My only concerns are broken glass, sharp rocks, and running on asphalt on a hot summer day.
Running barefoot is best started as a child, imho, and build up the flexibility when one is light weight and before a lifetime of injury from bad shoes. If an adult who has foot problems decides to take off across the meadows, he’s likely to hurt himself. On the other hand, if you look at the feet of people in barefoot cultures, you do not see good evidence that this practice helps. There are very few people in those cultures whose feet do not show evidence of wear and damage.
When I lived out by Oakland, I was in a barefoot hiking group for a while, and then just did it on my own. You get a lot of weird looks from other people you meet on the trail, but it did feel exquisite! They have real foot-friendly ground out there… lots of soft dust and pine needles. The two things that you will learn when you do that is that exposed ground can get VERY hot, and that you do NOT shuffle your feet. Put your foot straight down on something sharp, and you can generally pick it back up before damage is done (although you may have to do that hop-stumble thing). Slide your foot, and you cut huge slashes against the sharp object before you realize it’s there. Of course, I am one of those people who take their shoes off whenever I have a chance, so that may help.
And you get even weirder looks if you are hiking barefoot with a cat on a leash!
😆
On the other hand Oklahoma, where I grew up, is the land of goatheads and burrs, and any hike across grass will kill you. I once dashed across an inviting stretch of grass near the pool, and was going so fast I was halfway before I felt the 10-12 goatheads imbedded in my feet. Then I was faced with the decision whether to sit down and pick them out, knowing I would get more, and that I was wearing a thin swimsuit—I sat down, I picked them off my rear, and limped onward, trying to squidge my feet between the plants so as to pick up fewer. Didn’t work. Ow, ow. Ow. I was eight. Infelicitous eight.
And also the land of high heat. I got back from a walk on pavement and found the soles of my feet breaking out in huge blisters. I had to lie down and stay there until a combination of bursting them and long soaking in Epsom salts had given me something like a walkable surface on my feet. I was ten. I never forgot that one.
I spent a year at Fort Sill and totally agree about “land of goatheads and burrs”. However, my wife grew up in “The City” and went barefoot most of her youth. Alas, teacher dress-code shoes (back when there were such a thing a dress-codes) ruined her feet such that she cannot go barefoot even around the house.
It makes me glad I can’t buy heels in my size (it would be something like 4E, if it existed; I buy shoes in the kids’ department).
I’ve seen women wearing the three- and four-inch-heels with platform soles, and I don’t see how they can walk in them – it’s really more like mincing, and it’s very unnatural looking – without falling over. (The ones wearing them on the trains are a whole ‘nother set of problems.)
I ran into a story about a study that thongs (flipflops) are as good as barefoot for walking. That way you don’t have to deal with small pointy objects on the ground finding the skin between your toes.
I went to a podiatrist last month (well, I booked the appointment 3 months before that but that’s another story of the impossibility of seeing a specialist fast in Boston) because I had been having some pain in my arches. He asked me if I wear high-healed shoes. “Oh no,” I assured him (truthfully), “I always wear flats.” Much to my shock, he then said I should try wearing a half inch to an inch high heel. Apparently my own heels are about 1/2 inch lower, when relaxed (and not forced to press on the ground by standing on them) than the balls of my feet. They have minimal range fo flex when in flats. Who woulda thunk it? And it’s on my own, 50 year inhabited body! I picked up a pair of half inch high heels (ok, those count as flat for most of western societies’ females). Somewhat less arch pain. We’ll see what time tells.
My idea of a perfect day is a summer one when I do not put on shoes once and go around barefoot outside in the garden all day! No way in hell am I wearing shoes then — flats, heels, sandals or whatever!
A little bit of a heel (as in, the more bootlike of men’s “good” shoes) is actually good for my feet, I find. Our feet are not really flat and landing *completely* heel first is not so great.
I got some Merrill’s hiking shoes that nearly ruined my feet: I liked them so well at first I bought a backup pair…but they were baaaad. By the time I realized I was in chronic pain, the pitch of the shoes and the style—had combined to ruin my feet: arch pain, toes bent sideways, the whole bit, taken over about three years. When I took up skating—those lace-to-the-toe boots, combined with the constant exercise of balancing, and the fact that lace arrangement is tension-able—actually re-straightened my toes and did wonders to cure the rest of the pain, while reshaping the whole foot to a more ideal shape. I’m not saying this works for everybody: I’ve known some lifelong skaters who have really strange feet. But it helped me. The closest thing to those boots on dry land is the Reebok Easytone, which makes your feet work constantly, little micro-tweaks to keep your balance. I figure any sport that forces you to re-balance continually is going to keep you alive longer: if you have good balance you can avoid all sorts of mishaps.
I agree with you about the slight heel: it does help me in dress shoes. Plain flats in hard soles just kill my arch.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and admit that I like heels. The thing about platforms is that a 4 inch heel with a 1 inch platform only raises your heel 3 inches above your toes. Without the platform it is impossible to walk. The platform makes walking easier and more comfortable. On the other hand, if you don’t know how to walk in heels, they will never be safe or attractive. I switch from high heels to mid heels to hiking boots without much problem.
My issue is that starting out at 5’8″, wearing a 4 inch heel puts me at 6 feet tall. That’s not a problem when I am dating someone over 6 feet tall, but being single it tends to limit my options.
It very greatly depends on the ‘last’ for me. One of the most comfortable heels I ever owned was a very extreme heel with small straps that I got to dodge a spider bite area which remained sensitive for quite a while (fiddleback). Those (Amalfi brand) I wore until the soles wore through…and I was teaching all day on tiled concrete. Only one of the lot I currently own is comfortable in the least. I tried some Amalfis recently, and alas, they don’t measure up to the old ones from thirty years ago. Just now and again I can find the ‘right’ ones. But not lately, for me.
One of the funniest experiences in high (very) heels was when I was running to catch a train with 50 lbs of luggage. It was a terrazo floor before you hit the platform, and every stride, the heels would skid as the steel spring in mid arch gave under the weight: so front and back of the shoe would flatten, skidding on the terrazzo, and the next stride it would be the other foot, while the first one sprang back to normal. It was the most bizarre feeling.
I did manage to catch the train.
good heavens.no wonder you are doing so well with the skating, you must be very athletic!
I still do pretty well. A little stiffer than I used to be, though, and carrying a few more pounds than I want. Isn’t age fun? Plus the adrenaline of that moment helped!
Funny, I did a pair of art posters on this very subject last spring, for an assignment on truth in advertising. I can’t wear heels for more than a minute without nasty pain in the ball and arch of my foot (even wearing them long enough to capture the photos the posters were based on was torture). I wear tennis shoes or flat Teva sandals year round, and have one pair of nice flats with cushy soles, and even all of these can’t keep my feet from hurting if I walk or stand long enough. Which reminds me, I still need to look into those Reebok toning shoes!
Poster images below, for any interested in viewing! 🙂
http://uoregon.edu/~elacynic/portfolioModular_frames/images/FINALS/typography/highHeels.jpg
http://uoregon.edu/~elacynic/portfolioModular_frames/images/FINALS/typography/highHeelsII.jpg
Very clever posters!
Neat posters…… like your sense of graphic design. ;0
ugh, I am amazed at how ugly high fashion shoes are currently – I love this quote “a moment of heightened impracticality in footwear”! When I was in my early twenties we had those high wooden-soled clogs – these great lobster claw things are so much worse, and the worst ones make you stand absolutely on tip toe. I have seen some prada shoes all hung with crystals like a chandelier! in my first summer at art school (1969) I copied a friend and went barefoot the whole summer. we were pottery students. it was fine, really quite nice, except for standing on someone’s still burning cigarette butt, and the veruca I caught, which was almost impossible to get rid of because my soles were so thick, I limped all the following winter.
I never was much of a one for heels, I like to be able to run if necessary, and now I have rapidly enlarging and very sore big toe joints (arthritis, I am doing cider vinegar and honey and hoping, still walking briskly an hour a day with my dogs) I have to wear a size up and very definitely flats. birkenstocks are my favourite. I blame the arthritis on running 6 miles a day in my thirties – proper running shoes and all. at least my knees and hips are fine.
I recommend what I’m wearing—except I wouldn’t wear them where there are long thorns: puncturing the air chambers wouldn’t help at all. For an alternative, based on my experience, lace-to-the-toe boots are a huge help: I wondered where you could get them that weren’t skating boots, and happened to spot, of all things, hunting boots. If the laces go quite far toward the toe you can adjust the tension in an odd way: I pull up hard (I use a lace-hook) on the inside (toward body center) laces and the opposing row I don’t tension half that much. It helps my feet; somebody else might use a different tensioning pattern. That’s how adjustable they are. Feels as if you’re wearing a foot cast, but they so protect your feet—at quite the opposite end of the scale from barefoot. But I think the hunters are onto the best design for long, rough-terrain exercise.
And what do I do around the house? Barefoot, naturally.
it’s funny, my father would not tolerate naked feet, I am not sure why. in this climate (UK) I mostly find it too cold to go barefoot, and am out of the habit as well. so my feet are very soft. my barefoot student friend compromised in very cold weather, she wore wellies. but no socks. what good circulation she must have. walking barefoot ought to be very good for one if one believed in reflexology.
I think tight lacing would be very painful for my poor old joints, across the ball of the foot, but it sounds impressive, what it does for you. I have a good supportive fairly broad pair of walking boots and they do me pretty well for walks. I always did hit the ground heel first and I have healthy arches and very flexible hamstrings.
From my experience of 3-mile barefoot hikes, with a break for lunch, I can say that the experience is mostly pleasant (especially in the spring when there is lots of lovely squishy mud!), with one very odd exception. We’d walk about half way and take a break for snacks, water, lunch, that sort of thing. And that part would be just fine. It was the first ten steps or so after lunch that were extremely hypersensitive. It’s almost painful, but not pain… just that you feel everything under foot. But after about the tenth step, something clicks in your mind and suddenly everything is back to normal. It’s a really strange thing to go through.
Hunting boots, or ropers (lace-up cowboy boots), Cabela’s, LL Bean, Wal-Mart, probably at a Red Wing shoe store, Rocky boots. Just a few name brands.
When I was still at my day job we were required to wear some sort of athletic shoes….. a lot of us found what we called ‘sneaker flats’….. sturdy soles, good support and cute styling! 🙂
I had a great aunt who would be around 140 now who wore a size two and a half….. manufacturers used to make samples for display…. which she would buy. She was about 5 ft. tall and was like a little bird…. with a wicked sense of humor! 😀
Not only dangerous, but not all that attractive.
I just followed someone wearing nearly-as-bad footwear down 3 flights of stairs, and she was TEXTING. With both hands. I was careful NOT to pass her (didn’t want her landing on me).