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I’ve not posted here in a long time but still drop by from time to time, and while heeling is largely behind me, I’ve been wearing color on toes for over 10 years, openly in warmer months (long story how I got started.) And I’ve been consistently and pleasantly surprised at the number of complements from women during that time. So, go ahead, call your wife’s bluff! Regards, Logjam

Me too!

Haha then I'd rather stick to practicing in Hot Chicks than in Converse 😉

That’s horrific. You mother should have gone to prison. I can’t imagine being so twisted

Buying sneakers is a real rarity for me. I have nearly always worn boots of some sort, except for cycling or going to the gym. Or many years ago when I used to run marathons. I bought the Converse because I liked the pastel colours and so ironically they’ve ended up being like @higherheels Hot Chicks - purchased because they looked fun and ended up being left in the closet because they’re hard to wear!

What a pity, and at the same time interesting that flats which should apparently be comfortable aren't. I can't even speak of recent experience because I only have one pair of sneakers left, and use them for working only where I'm not really walking a lot. But yes, they feel like offering no support at all. Are you talking about pumps or closed shoes? I never really had this issue. This happens to me too, especially with higher heels.

@mlroseplant and @higherheels - Thank you for your presence and encouragement! I’m really quite chuffed. I really feel quite at ease. To be sure I’m not out striding a high street, on roughened sidewalks, taking curbs and hustling to cross that the lights, but as I walk confidently around indoors I can certainly now imagine doing such a thing and doing it with reasonable grace. i too find this who catwalk routine ridiculous. It looks exaggerated and absurd on the catwalk. In real life it would be comical.

Yes, Keds, like Converse, are flat, offer no support and in my case the thinness of the soles gives no cushioning to the nerves in the balls of my feet. They are much more painful than my leather soled stilettos

Yesterday evening it buggered my mind so much that I can't find good everyday occasions for the Hot Chicks, that I just put them on and went for a walk around the block. Actually this might be the best training occasion anyway, because it's simple, I can always do it, and I can vary the length. And my neighbours know me anyway so they probably won't even realize if I'm wearing 13 cm heels instead of 11 cm 😅 Usually I also always drive in my heels, but somehow I never tried in the higher ones. And I have the same issue with scuffed heels from driving, so I wouldn't want to do this to my Hot Chicks. That sounds very good 🙂 Exactly! Nobody walks like that, and I don't see any sense in that. Maybe it's a thing of the look coming from the runway...

That is a very nice feeling, indeed! Unfortunately, I don't have that feeling nearly enough. It's not that I feel clumsy or uncomfortable, but rarely do I feel like I actually know what I'm doing. I may expand upon that thought later. I will have to buck the trend here, and say that I do not find How to Walk in Heels videos to be very helpful at all. There are a significant portion of them that are just wrong, or give bad advice. Those that do give correct advice present it in such a way to be less than helpful with the motion of the walk, if that makes any sense. And whoever says you need to walk upon a straight line, or worse yet, cross your feet over each other as you take each step needs to be publicly shamed. Nobody walks that way on the street. It looks beyond absurd. I'm not saying that there aren't any good videos out there, but they are few.

There is often a blurry line between actual injury and just getting old. I don't think there's anything wrong with my knees, but they are definitely not the knees of an 18 year old. As far as the other stuff, there seems to be no sign of trouble from the old Achilles tendon injury, and my plantar fasciitis symptoms have left me as well, thanks to ballet-type exercises. I guess I'll just keep doing THAT. How old do you have to be to get a knee replacement? I didn't realize there was an age floor on that. My wife needs one, but I guarantee she won't get it until she's in a wheelchair.

I was mostly concerned with coworkers seeing my colorized toes, but your poignant point was not lost on me either. What is the chances of that really happening, and if my wife wants something so simple, why not appease her? Without question it is an excuse of MINE that I fully own. You are right, I should call her bluff.

This is not surprising as my wife says something similar. It is almost ironic but the Keds she wears often, (picture several posts ago in this very thread) and keeps as backup shoes, hurt her feet if she does not wear arch supports in those kinds of shoes. The flatness of them is almost worse than some of her high heels. Most of the time with her high heels, her foot pain comes from the vamp pressing on the sides of her toes in being pitched forward. When standing for long bouts of time, heel pain comes from the ball of her foot.

Not sure why I missed this thread until now, but I did. In any case I am empathetic on this as I have Achilles Tennon issues myself. For me... and I wonder if this may be part of your issue... it has to do with my knees. Yes, no joke! I need a knee replacement on my right knee but I am too young for it yet. So, I had minor surgery done to it in 2017, but after 6 months I was not recovering from the surgery. Then an occupational therapist decided to try something, she did massage therapy on my Archilles Tennon and it helped alleviate the issue and I could go back to work. I guess the tenons stretch from your ankle and then go around each side of the knees. For me anyway, with no ligaments in the knee to hold my foot in alignment, it strains my Archilles Tennon. Then, and now even, if I massage that tenon it helps with my foot/knee pain. For me I need this about once a week, something I can do, but my wife also helps massage too. Learning this has helped me a lot, but it also comes with a truth. With medical stuff people will often think that what is wrong with THEM automatically equates to YOU, and I am in NO WAY saying that. For me anyway, just the way my Archilles Tennon plays out, affects my feet and knee. You actually see it in my foot prints. On sand or snow, my left foot is straight ahead, but with my right, since I have no ligaments in my knee, it cannot hold my foot straight so it pulls to the right. Literally, my right foot walks duck-footed, or my footprint on my right side is splayed out at a 45 degree.

I think maybe I'm starting to get somewhere with my practicing, even if it is just indoors. I put on my heels this morning and felt really quite grounded, on solid footing. Its really nice!

I totally agree. Discomfort is one thing, actual pain is something else and is never something to put up with. Stop, recuperate, find out what caused the issue then fix it or modify whatever you need to prevent it from happening again. I have never done anything silly with heels, but I’ve ignored pain while training for distance running many years ago and learned to regret it. curiously enough the footware that seems to be most likely to give me problems are Converse trainers (sneakers) I bought a couple pair because I liked the pastel colours and then discovered that the thin rubber soles led to some serious pain in the nerves in the ball of my right foot. I stopped wearing them except on days when I know I won’t have to walk far - ironically not unlike I do with my 12cm stilettos!

Hey thanks for your kind words of compassion. But, while it is easy to get upset at the situation I just try and remember a few things. The first is that as rough as my childhood was, that is behind me. I am not going to let it get in the way of where I am going, as a person has no control of where they were born, what kind of parents they had, if they were in an urban setting or rural, but the decisions I make now can change almost anything for the better... if they are proper ones. So I try and focus on only things in life I can change. And secondly, compared to most of my foster siblings, I did not have it that bad. I endured physical abuse but not the other kind which most of them did. In fact, now they say 9 out of 10 kids in foster care have been S-Abused. I am VERY fortunate that was not something I had happen to me though.

I can drive in my high stiletto heels, but it recks the outside of the heel. And it has put a hole in my rubber floor mat. So now I will take the right heel off while driving.

Yes I guess that is very much a First World problem - the potential troubles with driving in towering Louboutin stilettos! Not a problem shared by much of the world. I can see too where the 13cm heels on Hot Chicks might not be suitable for a lot of situations. And a bit of overkill for grocery shopping! In a way our challenges are quite similar. There is nowhere within easy walking distance for me to wear my 12cm heels or indeed any stilettos. Simply getting off the boat in them would be impossible. I’m moored along a little jetty which is essentially a long fibreglass grate. A stiletto heel would simply go through one of the holes before you took a single step. And then there is the muddy chalky towpath for a kilometre before a very steep farm road up into town. So I have to put my stilettos in a backpack and change into them. I can do that in the park and practice there, but wearing 12cm stilettos in a small farm town grocery store seems overkill, Otherwise it’s a matter of catching a bus to a bigger town. And so the obstacles to real world practice start to build up.

They certainly are! Normally real world walking is the only way for me (except while breaking in a new pair), but since the Hot Chicks are such a challenge it was good to do more indoors. My biggest obstacle for wearing them out is that they don't feel suitable for many things. I don't have that many occasions with limited walking distance, and can't yet overcome myself to wear them for basic things like grocery shopping. Also this would bring the issue of driving in them, which I don't feel safe to do so. Typical luxury problems of living with Hot Chicks 😀

Yes, Hot Chicks are a pretty serious challenge. I had thought my indoor practice in my heels would have meant more than it did. Real world walking is so much different. I kind of like the challenge though. I’m looking forward to another try at the park

That's great! Real world practice is always a good idea, and I feel you for wanting to be good enough when really wearing them out for a specific occasion. As mentioned above I wore them out again (this weekend) and was a bit surprised. Even though I wore them regularly at home and felt some progress, it was totally different wearing them out again. For sure the home practice helped, but not as much as I expected. Now I want to find some occasions where I can wear them out more frequently, it's not that easy 😄

@higherheels Thank you so much! This high heels challenge has been such a help and such fun too. I’ve bought myself a new pair of jeans to wear with my 12cm boots as a reward for my hard work - and hopefully will get to wear them soon to a cafe for cake and coffee. Just need to get in a bit more real world practice. I have to be certain I can ace this! How are things going with the Hot Chicks? Did you ever reward yourself with the night out you mentioned after your successful outing a few weeks ago?

So sorry to hear that, I'm sure foster care was no ideal family situation either. I'm hoping you have been able to work through all the horrors that you had to endure. My childhood wasn't great, but paradise compared to your nightmares. D

@Shyheels That's great progress, and going to a cafe should be a good occasion for the first time. I think you're not that far away from it 🙂 @CrushedVamp I think such videos can help. But in my opinion the most important thing is to choose the right shoes, start low and keep practicing. The rest should basically come itself from practice. When I started, tutorials on Youtube weren't a thing yet like they are now. I just wore them. Later on i've watched such videos, but basically didn't learn anything new that I hadn't already found out myself.