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You could always say “you don’t know until you try!”

I get the "I love your heels, but I can wears heels any more" quite often. Last week at our holiday party, I had my short heel knee highs on (location was not heel friendly) effective 9 cm rise (heel-platform) and two men came up (different times) to talk about heels. Both said about the same thing, "I couldn't walk in heels like that." One was the Board's chairman.

Wearing my 12cm stilettos are the best calf toning exercise I’ve ever come across. My first few times wearing them my calf muscles cramped up quite painfully but now wearing those boots is a pleasant calf workout

When I say The Era of Super High Heels, I don't necessarily mean the era of super steep heels. It's true, 15 cm heels were everywhere, but always with a 5 cm platform (at least). I see a lot of shoes from this era still for sale on the likes of Poshmark or ebay. I almost want to buy a pair, just to see how they are (or were). I assume your shoes from the mid 2000s had about a 10 cm difference between forefoot and heel? I must admit to owning several pairs of platform shoes in the 3 cm range, and even some up to 4 cm, but to me the heel must be more than 10 cm higher or the proportions just look "off" to me. For sure, in the midwestern U.S., heels were everywhere in the 1980s, but my sense of what was super high when I was a teenager was definitely different than it is today. When I was at university, one of my good friends was a violinist with whom I spent quite a lot of time. She always wore these really high black suede pumps when it came concert time, and we were required to wear formal black. I don't remember exactly how this happened, but her shoes got left behind in my dorm room overnight (without her, I must add). Although she was a 38, maybe a 38 1/2, which prevented me from actually trying the shoes on, I did put a tape measure to them. A touch shy of 9 cm. That's it. And those were super high heels back then to most people, including me. Today, this girl, now a woman of course, is really my only friend from uni that I stay in touch with. I have admitted examining her shoes way back when, and we got a good laugh out of it. Here's the kicker: She says she has no idea how she ever wore those shoes at all, much less every time she had occasion to dress up in the color black (which was pretty often for us music majors). I said to her, "Hon, you realize that 9 cm is like a mid heel to me, right?" Her max height is now about 3 cm. So very true: 8 cm heels count as heels, but they are quite manageable. I am trying to remember when it became thus for me, because I can recall my first public appearance in true elevated heel footwear that required a bit of walking, and it was to an event on our town square. It was about a half mile there and another half mile back to my house. I was wearing effectively 7 cm clogs. I remember the half mile home being impossibly long due to tired calf muscles. And I was pushing my then 3 year old son (now almost 17) in his stroller, so I even had something to hang on to. Now 7 cm barely even counts as a heel!

I’ve got a very high end lithium battery set up with 600w of solar, inverter, and BMS. The guy who set it up - as I discovered later - had never set up a lithium electrical system. Aside from solar the battery should also be able to be charged off the alternator - although that needs to be set up very carefully. A lithium battery can easily kill an alternator. This guy didn’t have a clue what he was doing and the alternator eventually blew. What should have been a straightforward fix - new alternator and proper set up - turned into a complete circus.

I must admit to being kind of jaded, having an industrial background, but I was kind of thinking the same thing. On the other hand, I absolutely hate dealing with automotive electrical gremlins.

I hope that all was rectified without further cost or inconvenience to you. It's hard to imagine that much would go wrong in a normal boat electrical installation. Are you using an inverter to provide 230v AC from 12v batteries, or solar power, or both? And do you have a facility to connect to the AC mains when moored in a suitable place?

There are no Deichmann branches near me and I rarely visit, but my impression is that it does (or did) have a limited range of women's footwear up to UK10. Maybe no longer. That said, most of the styles on offer (regardless of size) have always seemed to be pretty uninspiring, with few heels of any significance.

That’s so true - I find it funny to read where people speak of 3” (or 7,5cm) heels as being “high” and 10cm as virtually unmanageable. I’m no expert but I have no trouble with 10cm stilettos and find them quite fun to wear and 8cm heels are fine for long walks, almost unnoticeable as heels.

Wow! Congratulations! Well done! Walking 100 metres to a restaurant (and back again!) in those 13cm + boots is really impressive! And no doubt will help immensely with wearing your Hot Chicks. its interesting they were more comfortable than the Hot Chicks too. They are really nice boots and as you say, great for going out on occasions where you do more sitting than walking. Yes I was really pleased with my long walks in the 8cm heels. The heels themselves were really comfortable, it was just the uneven surface - almost like cobbles - that was the tricky part

@Shyheels I'm sure that helps! 5 km is quite a bit of walking, so even if it's "only" in 8 cm heels it will get you used to them very well. Yesterday I wore out my new boots for the first time 🙂 It was only a short walk from the car to the restaurant, about 100 m one way. But it was enough to feel the bit of extra height to the Hot Chicks again. Other than that, they're even more comfortable than the Hot Chicks, which is really nice. A very nice shoe for occasions with less walking and more sitting. I'll try them soon for my walk around the block. For further distances I still have to practice to make them more comfortable.

That's really nice! I can't say that about me. Maybe for them it's even more fascinating that you're a man wearing them, than if a woman wears them and it's still rather normal. I was never aware that I grew up in the era of super high heels, but as I've read a bit of your historic experience already it seems so. When I started wearing heels I liked platforms the most. Then when I started wearing them for everyday life I shifted towards non-platforms which I still prefer until today. But I still have a few with smaller platforms that I like to wear now and then. It's like a love of my youth that never really let me go 🙂 Haha yes, and for others it's "I could never walk in those"

Thanks! Yes, I've been for a couple of long walks - 5kms or so (three miles) in 8cm heeled boots. It was nice and yes, I do think it does help in building a good foundation of mileage in heels and simply being used to wearing them. I a making progress with my 12 cm boots.

Our snow is gone, also. Well, not gone, but the pavement is pretty much dry now. However, we're supposed to get more tonight. Don't despair, my friend. If you're now able to get out in 8 cm to actually walk, that will get you a long way toward your goal.

And yet, I still get approached regularly by teenaged girls, who usually say something to the effect of, "I really love your shoes. I wish I could wear them." This doesn't happen regularly, but it's happened enough times to mention. This is a big change from 10 years ago, when the worst group by far to heckle me in public was teenaged girls. @higherheels I guess you grew up in the era of the superhigh heel. Like Michael Jackson, I've come to appreciate the platform pump a lot more as I've gotten older. During my youth, in the mid 1980s, platforms weren't a thing. Stiletto pumps (often open-toed) were definitely a thing, but they all had this peculiar 1980s shape to the heel--they might look quite dated today. Also, they weren't really all that high. I used to think that 10 cm was some impossibly high heel that nobody would actually wear in public. Today, 10 cm is laughably tame. Well, to us anyway.

Answer is no. I was needing to get to my appointment at that time. They rarely have even a UK9/EU42. Have only seen it once for a pair of flat boots.

Indeed! I just had a long cold day at the tiller moving the boat. Now I've the fire stoked up and it is toasty warm on the boat and I'm wearing my 12cm heels and click-clicking bout the galley as I make my dinner.

This does seem to be a very hidebound generation - as you say heels used to be considered fun and exciting. Now everything g is very worthy and earnest and requires the approval of the Twitter mobs

I feel like most of the girls today who wear heels for such events don't really do it for joy but because "nicer clothes" as you say are expected. In my days of youth, for most girls in my area it was more that we were excited to be able/allowed to wear heels and looking for every possible occasion where we were allowed to do so. The classic black pump wasn't really a thing for us younger girls. Pumps yes, but almost everything had a platform 😄 this was mid-2000s.

I stopped off after work yesterday to pick up my son, who was auditioning for a regional honor band. There were hundreds of high school kids at this audition, along with hundreds of parents. It was one of those deals where they expected the kids to dress nicely. Maybe not formal concert black, but they needed to wear something a little nicer than normal. When I finally found the place, and was trying to figure out where to find my son, the first thing I noticed was a mom in 4 inch chunky-heeled boots. Then I saw another mom in 3 inch heeled boots. In the 15-20 minutes I was there, I saw many high school girls in heels, mostly sandals (in spite of the season), and all of them were this modern style of super chunky, big heels, most of them with platforms. The way I figure it, girls these days buy heels for a high school formal dance, and then recycle these for occasions such as yesterday. What one does not see much of at all these days is just a normal, conservative black pump, something every girl my age who had any occasion to dress up would have owned from age 15 on. Nowadays, it's either boots or sandals. We are in a strange time. "They" say that heels are dead with Gen Z. I can tell you that this is not strictly true. I'm hoping that this is like the 90s, and that shoes will eventually get less huge.

It's better to not take a risk if the conditions outside are bad. There will come a time when you can wear them out again.

Well done! that’s excellent news! I shifted my boat up the canal and thought I might be able to get a bit of real world practice in on a better conditioned towpath but a quick survey made me think better. I did go for a long stroll in my chunky heeled (8cm) boots which was nice. My 12cm practice is still all done indoors.

I can imagine that it must be hard for you to find heels in your size. I'm not very often at Deichmann, but their stock on high heels generally degraded, not speaking of size. I'm looking forward to wear out my new boots this weekend. All the snow is gone again, so this might be a good chance. I wore them indoors everyday now and also did stretching exercises. In difficulty they now feel similar as the Hot Chicks did before, so I made some progress 🙂

Your decision makes sense indeed. Slipping/falling/possible injury are things we all need to avoid indeed.... I'm looking forward to a little snow so I can wear my gloss black knee high Hunter refined rain boots.... A true compliment indeed! Sounds like a great shopping trip, sorry they didn't have your size. Did you have a chance to talk with the other man who did find a pair?

Decided to go into Deichmann in Glasgow on Monday. Was looking at a few heels myself, alas they had stock that was too small. However, there was another man trying on a pair or knee high boots with a 3-4 inch heel on it. Clearly in not the only guy here who is interested in heels. He must have had small enough feet as UK 8 was their largest.