KneeBooted

Hello fellow heelers! It has been a long time, too long for sure. I thought I would also add to the scene out here in the San Francisco area.

For starters, I do not live in the big city. I live in an East Bay city that is predominantly Indian and Afghan families. I, as a Caucasian, am a minority.

I have been fortunate enough over the past few years of living out here to feel comfortable in being myself. What does that mean? It means unless I am hiking or running, I am always in some kind of heel. That includes work, shopping, even church. I realize this is not everyone’s scenario.

However, when it comes to men in heels in the area, I’d say if I’m actually outside the office during the week, I’d maybe see one other male in some kind of heel. I don’t know if any of them have ever noticed me before, but if they have, they’ve never approached.

I was pleasantly surprised one day at the office to see a guy in almost knee high riding boots over his dark jeans. They were quite stylish, despite the lack of heel.

It is always exciting when I do see other guys out and about in heels, because even though I may not approach them, I’m glad to see it’s slowly “normalizing”. 

As for side eyes, negative reactions, etc., I have not experienced it or have been aware of it if it has indeed occurred. 
 

I hope everyone is doing well and I will hopefully make more of a regular appearance here ☺️

On 12/8/2021 at 5:01 AM, mlroseplant said:

I'm not totally negative about the article, but I have some serious problems with it. Actually, it's not the article itself, it's the accompanying photos. The article sounds so reasonable, like "Oh! This is something I've always wanted to do, and finally I decided I'm going to do it." It's a road that a lot of us have already been down. But then, you see the photos.

I won't even talk about the guy in the silver banana hammock and the tinfoil boots (in lieu of a tinfoil hat?). Next, you've got the guy in a sport coat. Check. Button down shirt. Check. Nicely tailored and not skinny, jeans. Check. Lucite extreme platform sandals. What the actual?

Exhibit 3, pretty normal looking guy. Says he likes the way heels make his legs look. Then, he's pictured wearing a wife beater, Mom pants, and about 2 1/2" boots. It could have been a normal, positive picture, but no.  .  . the fashion world has to introduce some weird, unflattering element into everything, just to be different, even when different is already there, front and center. Not to mention the fact that in this outfit, you can't even tell what his legs look like.

I am guessing that this article is directed mostly at women, but I am not at all sure what the intention was. If the intention was to normalize men in heels, the writer bombed badly, or has a skewed perspective. If the intention was to show how ridiculous we look, they did a halfway decent job. Having said that, it may have been an editor's decision to include the silly photos. The article itself doesn't really match the photos. Even Mr. Banana Hammock must have photos of himself in normal street clothing and heels. Why weren't these included? Somebody wants to keep us on the fringe.

So I have had a conversation with a friend in the UK about this exact thing. One person that I feel is helping to normalize not only men in heels, but other fashion as well is Mark Bryan. He’s got good taste and I think his style is authentic. That is until he posts pictures of him at various photo shoots. A lot of the pictures are odd clothing combinations or bold off putting styles that no man or woman would wear in a normal everyday situation. Yet that’s what gets published because it is eye catching and edgy. 
 

While I applaud him for being comfortable in being himself, those photo shoots don’t do anything to help promote myself, or anyone on here looking “normal” in heels. Although I don’t really want to look “normal” because that sounds boring. I want to see how someone like Mark styles his heels into his everyday attire and have it look well put together, not like I found three random items of clothing and decided it was “style.”

On 11/8/2021 at 6:14 AM, Cali said:

Sorry @Rockpup, I beat you to it with my Wine Kimys from Nine West.

I’d argue those are knee high and not thigh high

1 hour ago, Cali said:

I've got a couple of pairs of Freebirds that look like those. Nice booties.

Yeah these remind me of Cavalier from Freebird, but with a higher heel. Style is Barrymore

Wore these new Bed Stü boots for the first time today. I started the day with the jeans tucked into them but decided I liked the look of the jeans over them in the end. Heel is about 3.5” and pretty easy to walk in

Recently bought these from Freebird. Style is called Grany and heel heigh is about 3”, so not difficult at all. Wore them to work today and got compliments from both men and women.

Chose my Freedbird Grany boots to wear to the office today

On 10/20/2021 at 5:01 PM, Cali said:

The Re-Learning curve.  

I have been lazy for the 7 – 8 months and have been wearing my Steve Madden Estrellas everywhere.  I just love these mules and even with the hundreds of miles these have seen, I not ready to give them. I can slide them on as I get out of bed.  I even have another new pair in a box in the ‘Heel Library’.  You can see from the photo below the contrast between the two pairs.  But they are “short”, only a little over a 3.5-inch difference between the heel and the platform.

However, we are expecting a period where we will be getting rain and the open toe just wont work. So, I pulled out a pair of black Nine West Kimy leather knee high today, see photo in boot thread.  They have a 4.5-inch heel and no platform.  That inch is significant since it been a while, I wanted to get use to them again. I plan to wear them to the doctor’s tomorrow (the front desk staff will go nuts.). So, I wore them to run some errands and then around the house for 4 more hours.  By that time I was use to the height again.  Below is a picture of my wine colored pair.

How does the Kimy fit around the calf?

I don’t think I’ve seen that style before

21 minutes ago, Cali said:

I wanted a Red crocodile Baker (as I remember). I have at least 6 pairs of their shoes, 2 including 2 sandals.

I bet a red croco Baker would look amazing. I have cognac and stone, find myself preferring stone more than cognac

5 hours ago, Cali said:

At least they had a price.

I asked Freebird to make me a pair of boots with a slightly taller heel but they said NO.  Haven't bought a pair from them since.

That’s a bummer to hear. They are one of my favorite brands, but admittedly I’ve never asked them to customize shoes for me.

They have shown to be supporting of the community of guys who wear heels though, which is a plus.

2 hours ago, Jura said:

I once made a (semi) serious enquiry with  Louboutin about why they didn’t make their shoes in larger sizes. I got a lovely, if slightly snooty, reply from them that they’d be happy to make me a one-off pair sized exactly to my feet. All I needed to do was attend a measuring session in Paris, then again for a fitting session, then again to collect my finished shoes.

Price for a pair of simple pumps was $3000 Euro. 

Gulp…

 

 

Wow that’s quite the hefty price, but if you’re going to wear them all of the time and you want a comfortable shoe, perhaps it is worth the price?

Thanks to @Isolathor this thread has been found! I had to look back and see when I actually last posted, which looks like November 2020. Now there definitely has been a lot that’s happened. I’d say most the notable thing is the acceptance and support I’ve gotten from some name brand shoe companies.

Actually prior to my last post, I did get quite the surprise from Sorel footwear. I had put up an Instagram story and the social media person ended up sending me a free pair of boots from them!

Since November of last year, I’ve discovered and fallen in love with Freebird by Steven brand shoes. They make some very unique styles of shoes and boots that are great quality leather. The customer service is amazing, and their social media team is top notch. I’ve been featured on their stories on Instagram and been made to feel like a member of the flock.

So with that quick post, that’s two brands you should give a try if you haven’t already.

-Jeff

From the Improbable website, I read part of the explanation from what I believe to be the “great” mind behind this… face-in-palm

”Dress up or made up is very important in social life to give impression to other people. Especially for young ladies of twenties and thirties or even forties, dress up is critical to find their mates.”

So I’ve had Poshmark do that before. USPS says it’s delivered but it never got to me.

1) this happens fairly often for us because there’s an authentication office for the high end items in our zip code and it receives a lot. So the post office sees Poshmark with that zip code and sends it there. It takes a couple of extra days and I usually have to file a report, but they make it to us.

2) there’s another street with our house number as well. Numerous times stuff has ended up there. It takes 3 or so days, but they usually bring the stuff down to us.

10 hours ago, Cali said:

In the last 5 years I have seen about 4 other men in heels. At the hometown boutique that I frequent. the manager tells me she has several men who buy heels. I just wonder if they get the same royal treatment I get.

It very rare that I don't wear heels in public.

They are on my list of places to visit along with a couple other shoe stores that are right in the shopping area there

6 hours ago, Cali said:

I got good news.  I visited the shoe boutique in town the other day.  The manager came over to talk with me. She knows that I want at least a 4 inch difference between the toes and the heel. They only had one model in that range but not in my size.  But here's the good news.  Since our state is opening up a bit and women are going back to work, she said that the women have been asking for heels again.  So the next shipment they have already ordered will have a lot more heels, higher heels.  I hope you see this trend in your neck of the woods.

I know you’re not terribly far from me. What store are you visiting?

29 minutes ago, VirginHeels said:

 

The boots Adam Lambert has on here. They look killer and probably 2.5-3.25 inches. 

Those do look pretty cool

I’ll throw a couple of pennies at this.

My wife of 6 years is amazing, hands down. From around the time we started dating, I told her of my desire to wear heels, and she has not only been accepting, but encouraging at that. This to me was quite the shocker considering she comes from a Midwest Christian family, because my assumptions were that they could be some of the most judgmental people out there. I’m so glad I was wrong about that!

Prior to that, however, I was in an emotionally abusive relationship. One that made me consider getting rid of my heels and wiping out “who I was” because she was convinced there was something wrong with me for being into heels.

It is in those rough times that if we make it past them, we can learn to love ourselves. I think my ex had insecurities which somehow were enhanced by my desire to wear heels, perhaps because I wasn’t manly enough. Who knows, I never tried to figure it out.

But what I’ve learned is that wearing heels is part of who I am, and that’s not going to change. My wife accepts me for it, and she loves the shoes she gets because of it.

Now, if something happened, and God forbid we weren’t together, I would not give up my heels for another relationship. With a capital Hell No.

But, if medically I somehow needed to give up heels in order to maintain my health or be able to remain physically active and play with my kids, then that’s a different story.

On 5/26/2021 at 3:19 AM, mlroseplant said:

You guessed it, that's exactly what I am doing, only I'm now in the process of reducing my walking theory to a writing. A video would be much more effective, but first I have to make sure I can actually do that which I have observed. I obviously haven't gotten around to it yet.

I watched a couple of reels on Instagram with her walking in those boots. It’s quite impressive how nimble she is, but at the same time, I probably have an extra 80 pounds on her and could not accomplish that feat while looking graceful. 🤣

7 hours ago, Cali said:

When I spend over $80 on a pair I don't want to an extra $100 to modify them. I wear mostly size 10, some 11 if they are a little narrow or pointed toed, so there is a wide variety to choose from.

My Nine West leather pair(s) are tight in the morning when I first zip them up but wider when I take them off that night.

While I agree with you that there’s a point where boots can be too much, there’s also something to be said for custom fit boots that look and feel great.

When you look at what custom fit boots cost from brands like Fernando Berlin, you’re going to be upwards of 350-400 dollars. If I can spend half of that to have a pair of boots in a style I want, knowing they’ll last me for years, I am willing to pony up that expense.

Now that’s not to say that you can’t find a great pair of boots that already fit well and will last you a long time without breaking the bank.

17 hours ago, MMM said:

In a short trip to a country house today… 

4” leather boot. Block heel. Easy to drive, not so easy to walk!

Making her happy! 😜

Are you on Instagram? Could’ve sworn I saw you post this on there. If so, send a heelo(pun intended)! I’m jeff.in.heels

7 hours ago, bluejay said:

I too have had my knee boots altered to fit my calves better. It's not a cheap process. Most of the time the shoe cobbler will charge me $75.00 to alter my boots, but in the end the look is so much better. I'll pay the price to get my desired look!

Happy Heeling,

bluejay

I would love to know where you live that only charges $75!

38 minutes ago, Cali said:

I have the opposite problem, large calves. There have been many boots that I can't zip up pass my shin. And if you wear the boots on the outside of your jeans, then you need even wider calf boots. You can subtract but can't add circumference.

I tend to agree with you, but with certain boots, especially a good leather boot, you can stretch them some.

I had a good conversation about stretching calves with the lady who is altering mine. My wife has larger calves and suffers from this dilemma as well. The cobbler has about 26 years experience and said a good thick leather can usually get about an extra inch out of the calves without any issues.

Other materials, etc. she suggested adding an elastic panel which she said she’s done before as well.

On 5/19/2021 at 8:45 PM, Pumped said:

Skinny jeans and knee boots? Seems like the perfect way to wear them! Why else get knee boots of not to show them off. You may as well wear ankle boots if you cover them with jeans.

I will agree with you 97%. The other 3% is when it is worn that way out of utility. I.E. want to wear those cute pants but legs will get cold, so the higher shaft boots are worn to help keep warm.

There is another reason why I’ve worn my knee boots under jeans. Before wearing my knee boots to work over jeans forever and a day ago, I wore them under jeans, if nothing else to still show off the cute style of the toe and heel.

One thing I am excited for coming up this fall is how my newly altered boots will look when worn over jeans! I’m blessed with thinner calves which makes it hard to find boots that fit well and don’t have a lot of bulk up top.

If I ever get to updating my thread, I’ll discuss how my first experience with getting boots altered has gone, and the joy it has brought me.

I don’t think I could call myself a binger at this point, although I do have the same pair of Converse wedge sneakers in 6 different colors.

For me, as much as I love the styles that I have, my boots are usually all a brown, gray, or black and don’t come in a variety of colors.

There is a ‘but’ coming. But, I do have a pair of boots that I love so much that when I found them in another color on Poshmark, my wife got them for me for our upcoming anniversary.

As well, there are a couple of other pairs of boots I recently got that come in other colors that I’d like to have, but I’m on a shoe buying hiatus until August, so I hope they’re available then

I’ll chime in here since no one has said they’d prefer a pair of boots yet.

Growing up, the iconic style I remember was that of a black leather knee high boot with a chunky heel, rounded toe, and no platform.

For some reason, that always stuck in my head as the must-have style. I don’t know that I saw them everywhere, but a handful of people I can recall had them, including my mom.

That being said, if I had to pick one pair and one pair only, I’d probably continue that idea with a black leather knee high boot. And since it’s our fantasy, I’d love to have feet that fit into Christian Louboutin boots for that matter! 

However, I don’t know that I’d keep the round toe and chunky heel. While that does make it easier to walk in and more comfy on my feet, I’d probably want to succeed in wearing pointy toe stiletto. Something like the Eloise boot they have now, which is a textured black leather and looks amazing.