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Here is a picture of me at church, wearing 11 cm heels, playing the alto horn (or tenor horn, if you are British). On Christmas Eve, no less, in blatant violation of the rule. The other flat-heeled guy playing the trumpet is my son. It wasn't my best outfit choice ever. What's up with those pants?

It's a look I'd like to try

Last week, I was in The Netherlands to celebrate a milestone birthday for my wife. We went to dinner on the evening of her special day and for the occasion, she selected an intimate setting about 2kms from our residence. Given that the notoriously unpredictable Dutch weather was cooperating (No rain, non-hurricane force winds, and mild temperatures) we decided to ride our bikes to the restaurant. My outfit for the evening consisted of a pair of just delivered, custom made, black leather, high-heel knee boots from Noe, my favorite brand, which just happens to be based in The Netherlands. They feature 4.25" heel with a .5" platform and ~14" top circumference. Simply put, they are "to die for" gorgeous! Pair with a very "flirty" grey skirt and black top, it was a beautiful outfit if I do say so! If anyone has ever biked in The Netherlands, they would know that doing so can be a challenge in its own right. Doing so in heels, however, adds a new level of difficulty. Admittedly, the ride to/from dinner had to be done carefully so that I did not damage the heels if the ball of the foot area slipped off the pedals, or I had to come to a sudden stop. The sole of the boots is not rubber such as that found on a pair of trainers, so their slipping off the pedals was somewhat of a frequent occurrence. Fortunately, I made it to and from dinner with no damage to the boots. And I loved being seen wearing my new boots!

Great boots for snow removal!

And now. . . for something completely different! Yesterday it snowed. Again. It's going to be one of those winters, apparently. It's not even Christmas, and I'm already wearing of removing snow. A couple of years ago, I got these vintage boots. Cobbies is the brand name. I got them because they are shearling lined, and I wanted some "heels" to wear when it was really cold. These boots feature 2 3/8" heels, which is right at about 6 cm. In other words, FLAT. Which suits me fine for the work I'm doing. I do consider them low heels in the grand scheme of thing, but they're flats. Let's be realistic. Where things get interesting is the coefficient of friction factor. The forefeet of these boots are quite grippy, while the heels, once covered in ice, are dangerously slippery. This leads to some interesting footwork, worthy of a ballerina or Latin dancer. Walking heel to toe on smooth concrete after walking in the snow can lead to catastrophe, so it's best to do the opposite--toe first. I demonstrated this to my 16 year old. He said do what you got to do. A reheeling with Vibram would probably solve this issue.

Yes, winter can be a tough time for the higher heels. In snowy or icy conditions I also prefer something lower and a block heel, such conditions can even be difficult in flats. But boots with a low block heel can be just as good. It's been like 15 years ago that I last wore any flat boots for winter, and I never had any problems since. This reminds me of a funny story a few years ago. We were (once again 😉) out at a christmas market with friends. Because snow was everywhere I wore a pair of boots with a block heel, something around 8 cm. While at the christmas market, we saw that on a nearby mountain there was also a christmas market which looked nice, so we decided to visit this one too. It was only a small mountain, something like 150 meters of altitude from the bottom and only accessible via a footpath. My husband and friends asked me "are you sure you can handle this path in your heels?", but I had no doubt because they had a good sole, block heel and weren't that high. And I wasn't wrong, it was really easy. Uphill was pretty much the same as with flats, and downhill I even had a bit of an advantage when walking on the side of the footpath where the snow was a bit softer. Because my heels could grip into it. I sure got some funny looks when other people obviously struggled more in their Uggs and such than me in my heels 😀 So this is my proof that heels can be as good as flats or even better in snow.

I'm trying to think if I've ever seen somebody around here wearing leather pants who wasn't riding a motorcycle. Skirts, yes, but I can't recall having seen somebody in pants outside of PPE. I'll be on the lookout. Speaking of looking out, I was at the grocery store yesterday (in heels, of course), and I spied a woman at some distance walking away from me. Soon I noticed heels sticking out of the hem of her pants. She had long hair, and was wearing a camel colored wool coat. At that moment, one of the clerks stepped out of the checkstand area and said, "I can help you over here, sir." I couldn't really say to hold on for a minute, I need to check out this woman's shoes first, could I? So I will never have any context for the heels. Ten years ago, I wouldn't have cared, but now I kind of want to know why someone besides me would wear heels to the grocery store.

I went to the chiropractor earlier this week wearing 4 1/2" stiletto heels, and he didn't say anything. I was kind of prepared for a discussion, but none ensued. It's not happened a lot, because I usually stop in on my way home from work, so it's a non-issue, but on several occasions when I've been in "civilian" clothing, I've changed my shoes to go up there because I didn't feel like talking about it. Maybe that has become unnecessary.

Bluejay, Looked at the link and those boots look both cumfy and sturdy. Think they would go well with jeans, skirt or a dress. Don’t have as many boots as some here but live the ones I do have. HinH

Interesting, I didn't know about the differences between womens and mens shoes. Probably also depends on foot and shoe shape. Some pumps I can also put on just by stepping into them, some I have to pull back on the heel to get into. I'd also say that stilettos look more feminine than block heels in general I just came back from my first walk around the block in my new boots. They're definitely harder than the Hot Chicks for such a "long" walk. I can feel it in my calves and also on the balls of my feet. I will stick to shorter distances and indoor wearing for now. The walk around the block was about my limit, so I'll try it again when I had more practice. Still have a long way to go, but maybe I can wear them out soon again for dinner or so 🙂

I spent the entire day yesterday in high stiletto ankle boots. When adjusted for size and platform, the heel height was 10.4 cm. I am not quite telling the whole truth about that. I intended to spend the entire day in 10.4 cm stiletto boots, but fate had other plans for me. As documented elsewhere, I broke a heel about mid-afternoon and had to switch to 10 cm slim heeled boots after that. I would say that hobbling around on a broken heel for the better part of an hour was good practice for 12 cm, but I really don't think it was. It just made me grumpy, and made me look funny.

I had my second shoe failure of 2025 yesterday. However, this one was not catastrophic--in other words, it can be repaired. I was wearing my Aldo stiletto ankle boots to shop at Costco, and I noticed as soon as I stepped out of the car that something was very wrong. The heel on my right boot had indeed come loose, and was flexing wickedly in a way it wasn't meant to flex. I didn't have any alternatives with me in my wife's car, so I had to walk very strangely the whole time in order to keep from damaging the heel further. I prevailed in the end, I believe this shoe can be fully repaired, but it ruined an otherwise enjoyable outing. I'm doing pretty well this year. On an average year, I have about half a dozen shoe failures, and the vast majority of those result in the shoes being reclassified as landfill material. This year, I've only had two, and like I said, I'm sure this latest one is an easy fix. This despite the fact that I've walked significantly further in 2025 than I did in 2024.

@mlroseplant I only know strip clubs from movies or tv series, and am probably even too young to have recognized that "normal" heels were used in the 90s. Interesting indeed, I only have huge platforms in my mind when I think about stripper heels. It makes sense for manufacturers to use the same heel height for a few sizes to save costs. There probably will be many models out there which are manufactured that way. Wow, as if the height challenge is not enough you're also making a distance challenge! 60 miles in a month sounds a lot. I wonder how much I would make in a normal month. For the christmas market on the weekend I chose a pair of 11 cm boots. Up to now I've always chosen some lower heels like 7-10 cm for christmas markets, so it was really nice to wear something different this time. We were there for about 3 hours, so with all the standing it was not as comfortable as with lower heels, but it was OK. I now definitely want to wear 12 cm boots to a christmas market too, but therefor I will pick a smaller one where we won't stay as long.

So I decided to wear heels to Jury Duty. The pants mostly covered things but security noticed that I had heels on and asked me to send them through the scanner. Nothing major to say, as I wore mary jane flats the next time.

I had promise to do several stories from my early November trip. On the first day of the convention, there was not my heels worn, only me and a few others. However the current leader, was in tall stiletto pumps, her normal ware. Although, many women talked to me about heels. However, on the second day there was many 3 inch heels and a number of 4 inch heels. And the third day a lot of heels. I also saw heels (high stilettos) at the up scale restaurants I had dinner at. === I just returned from a Thanksgiving trot. Only saw a few heels at each airport, BUT, and @pebblesf might be extra interested in this, I saw a flight attendant is 3 inch heels coming off a plane. Today at another airport I saw a flight attendant crew from Southwest where 2 women had at least 3 inch heels, one had a 2 inch heel, while the 4th had flats. Very unusual for a non-Asian airline flight attendant crew. I have stayed at hotels where about 90% of the female flight attendants from an Asian airline were in heels; that's where there are 24+ flight attendants (for the 16+ hour trip).

The last time I was in such an establishment was 1991, and the definition of "stripper heels" was quite different back then. Leave it to me to be more interested in the shoes than the other bits. What dancers wore at that time was what we would consider quite normal, almost boring shoes. Pretty much pumps with four inch heels. Platforms were not a thing at the time, at least not around here. Sometime between 1991 and now heel heights that seem normal increased dramatically, and platforms for exotic dancers got ridiculously thick. To me, "stripper heels" have never really been all that steep, because after all, one has to be able to at least pretend to dance in them, and for the better part of the entire night at that! I can give a very good example of where "the formula" doesn't work quite right. I have over the years owned a few different pairs of a Michael Kors shoe called Oksana. If you buy them in USW 8 1/2, you get 5 1/8" heels (with 1" platform). If you go up to size 9, the heels suddenly become 5 1/2". That's a full centimeter difference in half a size bigger. Because they are Kors less expensive line, they obviously didn't make a different heel for every single size. I'm guessing 8 1/2 was the cutoff for one length of heel, and 9 was the beginning of the next. ________________________ In other news, most of the reason that I have not been practicing toward the goal of 12 cm heels recently is because I have been working toward the goal of walking 60 high heeled miles in a single calendar month. I have come really close a couple of times, but I've never actually exceeded 60 until now. Here is a picture of me (wearing boots, no less) right after I finished walking the last high heeled mile. Although with the new system of proportional measurement, I'd technically have to call these mid-heels, as they are 1/8" (3 mm) short of being actually "high."

You guys must have or have had interesting jobs, I can't even really follow from the descriptions 🫢 How come that you would long to, but still wouldn't wear them? Good categorization, I also go with that! Is there actually a definition of stripper heels, or do you have a personal one? For me, the only type that comes to my mind are the ones with huge platforms and rather low heels (if you subtract the platform). Of course, join us if you want! I can also recommend trying something higher if you like the style. And yes, it really helps with lower heels too. I can feel the difference especially in something like a 11-12 cm heel, they became more comfortable for longer walks. Now that all the christmas markets and events are starting, I might as well try some higher ones for that and see how it goes. Not my new 13+ cm boots though, that would be too much. But I wear them everyday at home and it's getting better. I'm close to wearing them out for the first time.

One thing I have been so pleased about as a result of this high heel challenge is the ease with which I now get about in my 10cm stilettos. While I am slowly getting better in my 12cm ones, the improvement at the 10cm height is really gratifying and noticeable - so much so that I find myself tempted simply to wear my 10cm boots for the sheer joy of it, at the expense of practicing with my 12cm ones. The past two days I’ve been wearing them 12 hours a day - admittedly not walking much, just puttering about, making meals and coffee and writing at my desk, but being in 10cm stilettos is starting to feel natural and intuitive. I like it

Now that's a nice compliment you got 🙂

Sounds like a nice pair of boots for work. In a bigger size they won't be that steep and comfortable for a whole workday.

So today I pulled out my Nine West leather knee high boots and measured the heel, 4.75 inches, just over 12 cm, no platform. Small block heel. I have these in two colors, wearing the dark red/brown ones today. Haven't worn these in many months but plan on at least 8 hours in them today at work. Don't plan on having any troubles in them.

I walk to be able to walk and wear 5inch stilettos and not buy too many pairs on the way how do you recommend i and other members get there?

Like everyone says, start of with lower block heels. It is unreasonable to expect to be able to step into 5" stilettos and enjoy walkiung. Fumbling around in ill fitting heels that are too tall is a confidence killer. Being confident is just as important as being skilled.

Yes. They imitate German Christmas markets here - badly! I would have liked to have worn my stilettos to the town fete but the walk along the towpath is just too rough. I am thinking of packing my 12cm boots in a knapsack and walking into town, and changing there. Or maybe taking the bus and the train and trying my stilettos at the imitation Christmas market in Leeds

Your Christmas markets in Germany sound lovely - and from all I’ve heard they really are, too. We have imitations of them here in Britain but they are not very nice - expensive, very fake and shoddy. I'm impressed with your going out to a market in 11cm boots for three hours. That’s great. We did have the town Christmas tree lighting event here where I am moored, and with the towpath frozen - instead of muddy - I wore some nice suede OTK boots with 8cm heels. It was about a 5km walk there and back plus standing around - nothing I fancied attempting in stilettos. It was a nice evening. Friendly little town. I think I was probably the only one in heels

Same here. I wear knee boots and invariably have to remove them.

Yes. Make sure they fit well and are well made.

I have too take my heels off to go through security at airports. And I fly in knee highs on the outside.

But make sure whatever you buy fit WITHOUT pain. Life is too short for shoes that hurt.

If you’ve never work heels I’d try chunky 3 to 3.5” to start, than then maybe four inch (10cm) stilettos. Take your time. There’s no rush

Should I go for chunky but higher or lower stilettos how would you suggest i "graduate"?

If you’ve never worn heels before you’re going to need to buy at least one other pair and probably two - a lower heights to get you familiar with the feel of wearing heels. And even then it will take time, patience and perseverance. Five inch heels - or 12cm - is a challenging height even for experienced high heel wearers with years of experience. There is no easy way

Hey, at least somebody is still wearing heels besides us!

Thank you, and I'll let you know that I'm probably taking the last two days of the month off. I barely made it under the wire before this snowstorm hit, which is supposed to last until 6 a.m. tomorrow. Maybe I will take some footprint pictures if the correct situation presents itself. Good luck with your editor. Hopefully, we'll both be back at the 12 cm thing soon.

Congratulations on your 60 mile month! And nice to see that you wear boots! 😊 Ive been stressed and under the gun trying to finish a feature that has turned into a nightmare by a new young and less than gifted editor with adolescent tabloid instincts and who simply doesn’t grasp the story. I’ve retreated to the safe stable height of my 10cm stiletto boots as I write

In the UK, the size increment is supposedly a 'barleycorn' (= 1/3") but it is the last rather than the shoe that is designated, with men's and women's sizes being theoretically the same. The last is intended to be longer than the foot by 'around' 1/2", but there is no clear agreement as to foot length; a UK11 shoe being variously said to fit a foot almost anywhere between 11" and 12" long! It is my understanding that US sizes also have 'barleycorn' increments; the sizing formula being quoted thus: 'Today in America, the sizing generally adheres relatively closely to a formula of 3 times the length of the foot in inches (the barleycorn length), less a constant (22 for men and 21 for women)'. So, a foot measuring 11" would equate to a size of USM11 or USW12, which I find odd as perceived wisdom suggests that a number difference of two (not one) between male and female sizes is generally the case. Or is that 'plus one' a purely theoretical difference, as in most cases the shape and fit of the female shoe requires 'plus two' in sizing? (I know that my feet - equivalent to USM12 or 12.5 - require a full USW14 if to fit properly. You quote USW9 as being 9 7/8" (although 1/3" increments would suggest 9 2/3" or 10"). And the 'formula' would suggest USW9 = 10". I'm sure that neither of us would quibble over these tiny theoretical differences, but taking actual measurements in millimetres to identify sizes (as the Eu system does) is less controversial. That is how I got the Eu38:40 ratio of 95%. I may have misunderstood your application of the percentage, in that I was suggesting that the steepness of an Eu38 4" heel is the same as that of an Eu40 4.25", obtained by dividing 4 by 0.94. But we are both agreed that (obviously) the apparent steepness of a given heel height decreases with increasing foot length and in the same proportions.

That's basically 2, 3, and 4 inch in my imperial mind. Part of the reason why I came up with the 94% calculation is because the Italian Heels chart did not quite make sense to me. In particular, why in size 40 do I have to have a full 11 cm to equal a 10 cm in size 38, but I only need 12.7 cm to equal 12? The proportions are all a little bit off. Therefore, I came up with my own. It may be that an 11 cm heel is what you get when you order a 10 cm heel in size 40 from them, but the math doesn't quite math. Oh yes, it absolutely does! To be fair, it has taken me over a decade to get to that point, but I didn't exactly take the short route when it came to training. If I were in the main office far away from any construction job site, I might consider wearing heels to work, but the far more likely scenario is that I'd be in the field office, the temporary office that is right there on the job site. Those folks often wear tennis shoes or casual loafers to work, and then have work boots and all the PPE there for the occasions where they might have to step foot on the actual job site. If I could guarantee that wearing heels in such a situation wouldn't negatively affect my job somehow, I'd do it, but I certainly can't guarantee that. Even the female superintendents and other supervisors would have a hard time wearing heels to the job without negative consequences. I did it in inches. USW size 9 is 9 7/8", which is the actual measurement of my size 9 foot. This is also typically given as an equivalent for EU size 40. Size 7 (or 38) is somewhere around 9 5/16". Looking at it again, the charts disagree with each other slightly, and depending upon how you round certain numbers, I came up with something like 94.3%, which I rounded down to 94. It seems some charts list size 9 as being 10" long. Your mileage may vary. Also why would I divide by 94% to convert something bigger to something smaller? I have the size 9 (40) in my hand. I can measure it. I do not have the size 7 (38) in my hand. Therefore, I need to multiply by 0.94 (or 0.95) to find out the information I need.

OK, so we have the same definition 😉 I was just asking because you said upper limit of not-stripper-heels. 13 cm or 14 cm heels without platform sure are extreme, but I wouldn't describe them as stripper heels. But a 14 cm heel with a 6 cm platform might be a typical stripper heel in my eyes. I've also always been a big fan of 12 cm heels, but liked the Hot Chicks from the moment I first saw them. And now that I'm wearing them out more, I like them even more 🙂 Still not an everyday shoe though, mostly because of (dis)comfort. Style-wise it would work, but definitely always be an eye-catcher in every outfit. This weekend we're going to a christmas market already. Maybe I'll try some 11 cm boots for the beginning. Mostly there's standing for a long time at christmas markets, so I don't wanna regret it in the end if 12 cm were too much.

Exactly (as I stated in the 'other' thread). UK timber is invariably sold in length increments of 300mm, which is close to the imperial foot that used to be the increment. 2.4m (7.87 feet) is a very common length and still often referred to as an '8 foot' - but don't complain if it isn't quite that long when making something! UK Practice does vary. It seems that '4 x 2' is very commonly used (and I favour that), but some chippies and most timber merchants would refer to or list it as '2 x 4'. The latter is logical in that a whole range of timber used for rafters, joists, studwork etc is a nominal 2" thick but varies in width from a nominal 2" to 8" or more, so typically listed as '2 x 4, 2 x 5, 2 x 6' etc (or nowadays by the metric equivalents: 47 x 96 etc). But any builder or carpenter will know what is meant by a '2 x 4' (or a '4 x 2'!) even if he never worked in imperial measurements. 'Plasterboard' is the usual term for the generic product (as we have at least three major UK manufacturers) but some older folk call it 'Gyproc', which is the trade name used (though not now very prominently) by the oldest supplier - British Gypsum. You will sometimes hear the installers called 'dry wallers', but that is not really correct as plasterboard was originally introduced as a means of boarding ceilings - walls came later! It is more usual to call the installer a 'plasterer' (if he also skims the boards) but plasterboard is often installed by general builders or carpenters; it is not really a skilled task. Boards often have tapered edges (filled with plaster filler over paper or mesh tape - another relatively unskilled task) rather than square (flush) edges which need tape and a full skim-over, which is where the proper plastering skills come in.

I had some spare time yesterday, and wondered if I could come up with a formula that makes it easy to convert my size 40 into size 38 proportions. What I came up with is 94%. In other words, take my actual heel height, measured in person on size 40, multiply it by 94%, get the proportional heel height for size 38. It seems to work reasonably well, but it now requires that I rethink my entire categorization of heel heights. For example, I've always thought of 10 cm as being the minimum to be considered a "high" heel. Looks like I'm now going to have to up that to 10.7 cm, or almost 4 1/4". Interestingly, I have an oddly large number of shoes with that incline. It all make sense, now. It's probably an upscaling of a 4 inch heel from size 7 (38). I suppose it fits my new standard anyway--a 10 cm heel in size 40, which I now have to discount to 9.4 cm, feels remarkably mid-heelish these days. Here is my mental categorization, translated to size 38: Less than 5 cm is a flat, 7.5 cm is the lowest mid-heel, 10 cm is the lowest high heel. I'll go with 12 cm and above as being Very High, since I can't walk in them properly! I am trying to decide whether I'm going to convert to full-on metric the next time I do a shoe inventory. I'm kind of inclined (no pun intended) to do that, but since I do this for my personal entertainment anyway, why should I? Inside my weary head, I still think in inches, though I'm a whiz at translating to cm quickly, thanks in large part to my immigrant wife.

On a typical weekday, I spend anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour, but averaging 45 minutes, walking in heels of 8 to 11 cm, depending upon the weather and my mood. I then effectively spend the next 12 hours in work boots, by the time you add in lunch and commuting each way. With my feet the way they are, I always bring a second pair of socks, which I change at lunch. If I do not do this, I am miserable all afternoon. If I had to go 16 hours in boots, I'd go through three pairs of socks a day. Unless I have somewhere to go after work, such as church choir rehearsal or the occasional special event, I have various slip-on sandals that I use as house slippers, but all are 7 cm or less. That is why I wonder what my life would be like if I could wear heels to work every day, such as the red patent Via Spiga shoes I wore Sunday.

I wear my heels 12 hours on most days and sometimes 16 hours. Only time I'm in flats is when I'm barefooted or working in my garden or kayaking or skiing. Today its my Nine West Samreno suede block heeled knee highs, 10 cm.

Haha, now that came quickly! No longer practicing in these low 12 cm boots, 20 cm is the new thing 😄

Nah, I’ve just gotten incredibly gifted at high heels! 😂 That’s what I like about heels! They are always fun, never boring and there are so many interesting styles and heights - even if you just wear boots like I do!

I somehow thought since you're walking so many miles in heels you usually wear them all day. As this is what I do most of the time, I can tell you: Like everything else it becomes standard. For me it would rather be exciting to spend a normal day in flats, but as I don't like them I won't try that 😉 And the good thing about heels is that I can still vary between so many styles, so it never gets boring. You mean 10 cm, right? 😉

I did the same, in my 19cm stiletto knee boots, but I wasn’t walking around much, just puttering around - writing, cleaning, making meals. It was really quite nice. I felt very much at ease in them

I did something yesterday that I haven't done in a long time--I spent the entire day in 10 cm heels. Stilettos, at that. I put them on for church, and never bothered to change out of my Sunday clothes until about 7 p.m., so I was in the heels for about 9 hours. I didn't do anything particularly impressive in them, but it's been a very long time since I've had the chance to wear heels all day. What if every day were like that?

Yes four inch heels does have a ring to it. Here in Britain we use both measurements regularly. Our speed limit signs are in mph, but we guy our food in grams and kilos. We measure our height in feet and inches and talk about our weight in pounds and stone. Screws and bolts are metric, as are most tools. We buy petrol in litres but talk of miles per gallon. It can be weird. a mile walk in 10cm heels - to continue our mixed use if measurements - is impressive. The weather was vile out today so I went nowhere but wore my 10cm heels indoors all day. I should have worn my 12cm but I was lazy and the 10cm are so easy to walk in. It felt really odd, deflating, to take them off at the end of the day.

It is now time to reveal my most durable shoes. They hold this title by a wide margin. I would never have guessed that these would hold the record, especially given their shaky start in history. They are True Religion brand, model name unknown. I got them in June of 2019, and have walked a total of 314 miles (506 km) in them, and counting. The last time I wore them was 5 days ago, when I walked 2.1 miles. They have been reheeled 5 times, and resoled once. The heel is 4 1/2 inches (114 mm) tall, with a 1/2 inch (13 mm) platform. The heel is 3/4" (19mm) wide at the base. How I got here is a complete mystery. I bought an orange pair of these back in 2013, the first year I really started heeling in public. I soon got rid of them because a) I couldn't imagine a situation where I would ever dare to wear orange shoes, much less orange high heeled sandals, in public, and b) they were very tight, and once I got them on, were super high to me at the time. I think I made it once around the block in them, and decided they weren't for me. Much much later, I found a brown pair, and decided to give them another go. By this time, I was much more experienced, and I really liked them. Then I lost a heel tip on a walk one day, didn't notice it right away, and it completely ruined the heel. Then I bought this black pair to replace the ruined pair. I actually lost the OEM heel tip on this pair also, but I noticed it before any damage occurred. Fast forward a few years, and I began to notice that although I don't feel they are the most attractive shoes in the world, I often picked them over others to walk in, and I've also done several farmer's markets in them, which involves a minimum of 5 hours of standing. When I got to 200 miles, I figured they were not long for this world, so when I had the chance, I bought a brown pair and an orange pair to eventually replace them. I've put about 50 miles on the brown pair and just a few miles on the orange pair, but the black pair refuses to wear out. Whatever composite wood material these soles and heels are made of is evidently very stiff, but is not at all resistant to abrasion should you lose a heel tip. Without the rubber heel tip, they're done in a matter of a few blocks. I believe that the inherent stiffness of the material has allowed them to be so durable, coupled with the fact that the upper is 100% leather, including the liner and the sock. There is wear, to be sure, but not complete deterioration like you get with man made liners and socks. I do not believe that there is a metal shank, nor is there need for one. I suppose if they do fail someday, the whole shoe is going to crack in half. I am really curious to see if they'll make it to 500 miles.

We’ve had light flurries and a hard frost - enough for the towpath to harden even if the puddles are now iced over. There’s no way anyone would risk their heels or their ankles trying to walk on that surface in stilettos, but it was nice to be able to go for a stroll in my blocky heeled knee boots! @higherheels I’m impressed that you’re making progress in those lofty new boots of yours. I can see how the progression in heights - normal heels, Hot Chicks and then the new boots would help. Because if my time practicing in my 12cm boots my 10cm feel wonderfully easy. I’m really pleased by that.