Jump to content

Arctic

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    711

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Arctic

    Cowboy boots

    in For the guys

    Posted

    If you want to see what WR boots look like, take a look at these pictures... I am going to sell them when I get the time to put a note in the for sale section. Never worn :o

    http://share.ovi.com/media/boots.closeupsforsale/boots.12388

    http://share.ovi.com/media/boots.closeupsforsale/boots.12387

    http://share.ovi.com/media/boots.closeupsforsale/boots.12386

    http://share.ovi.com/media/boots.closeupsforsale/boots.12385

    http://share.ovi.com/media/boots.closeupsforsale/boots.12384

    http://share.ovi.com/media/boots.closeupsforsale/boots.12383

    http://share.ovi.com/media/boots.closeupsforsale/boots.12382

    http://share.ovi.com/media/boots.closeupsforsale/boots.12381

    http://share.ovi.com/media/boots.closeupsforsale/boots.12380

    http://share.ovi.com/media/boots.closeupsforsale/boots.12379

    http://share.ovi.com/media/boots.closeupsforsale/boots.12378

    http://share.ovi.com/media/boots.closeupsforsale/boots.12377

    http://share.ovi.com/media/boots.closeupsforsale/boots.12376

    Blade heels & Square toeboxes!

    in Your Favourite High Heel Pictures

    Posted

    Over here, a High Street cobbler/key-maker will change a pair of heels to a 4" blade type for about $80. Stiletto's off, blades on.

    I've acquired a number of pairs recently (2 ankle, 1 knee) all size UK8/US10 with no problem and not a great deal of money. All PU. I'll try to do some piccies tomorrow. :o

    I consider them 'risky' on polished floors though, and this liability may have contributed to their demise.

    ...

    Really? Replace the heel? That seems to be a mechanical challenge. If you have pictures of that I would be very interested.

    I hear what you are saying about the polished floors. Although I have the same issue with some of the western styles with an underslung heel.

    NYC Heel Meet - 26 july 2008

    in Real Life Meetings

    Posted

    Artic,

    I thought the pic of the brown boots were yours and there was a pic outside a car park as well, hence my comment.

    You got that right, but I only bought those boots at 9pm so by then most of the mileage had been clocked up already. And that was with the block boots!

    It isn't all that clear so no wonder it wasn't obvious.

    NYC Heel Meet - 26 july 2008

    in Real Life Meetings

    Posted

    My question would be, if some guy, wearing stilettos comfortably, would "look out of place", wouldn't they look more so if they weren't comfortable in other styles?

    Is the object of these meets to try and "fit in" with what other people think, so as not to stand out, or go out in shoes/styles they are most comfortable in?

    I'd say that if you are confident you can wear anything you want.

    But, if you are anything less than totally confident, stilettos are typically not the best option: harder to handle, style-wise less compatible with the typical male build, and not all stiletto shoes can mechanically handle a typical man's weight for tens of thousands of steps.

    Also wider heels are more suitable for serious walks due to the better lateral support.

    Nothing else :o

    NYC Heel Meet - 26 july 2008

    in Real Life Meetings

    Posted

    Cuban heels are not currently a female heel shape. They went well with your chosen outfit. I would doubt you would have been able to say the same had you spent the day in stiletto heels. By chosing the right footwear for the occasion, you did not look out of place.

    Could not agree more.

    However I was wearing block boots (no pictures of them on the site), not the cuban/cowboy style.

    Same logic applies though. And for that reason I advise most people against wearing stilettos on occasions like this!

    Men using high heels = gay

    in For Everybody

    Posted

    Question: What if I emailed Opra about men in heels and gave her this web site. I'd be proud to go on, how about you? (to All)

    From PR perspective, that would be exactly the wrong thing to do.

    The simple reason is that at this moment in time we don't have enough leverage to turn the general perception around, and giving it wide exposure will not fix that. As a matter of fact, it will only reinforce the already existing beliefs held by many, ie. that men wearning heels are freaks, are gay, have some kind of gender disorder, are fetishists, have unstable minds or are all of the above. That would happen no matter how positively Ophrah would pitch it.

    These days popular media works by seeking out marginal phenomena, magnifying them, and put them out of context for maximal impact. Men in heels would be a textbook example of that.

    The only option going forward is the high frequency, low intensity approach. Under the right conditions it can be accelerated by low-key endorsement of a leading public person.

    It is similar to traditional brand management: Compare it to a food brand or a car brand with a bad safety record. Or for example the Windows OS. You don't fix that by making big noise about "look, we are safe now", it will only yield a "yeah sure" from the population as a whole.

    Men wearing heels with confidence worldwide is the better way. And finding a rock star that does it, too.

    NYC Heel Meet - 26 july 2008

    in Real Life Meetings

    Posted

    And finally...

    the remaining 262 pictures from the heelmeet!

    Not too many heels to be seen in the pictures themselves, but all were taken by me wearing boots with loud 4" heels. In crowds, subways, stations, stores, squares, in the NY library. In plain sight. I guess way north of 5 miles of walking. No stares. No giggles. No comments.

    We no longer need to make our case, with heels for men we are over the threshold! In places like this, at least.

    http://share.ovi.com/channel/boots.nycmeet08-scene

    Blade heels & Square toeboxes!

    in Your Favourite High Heel Pictures

    Posted

    What happened to the boots with blade heels and square toeboxes? When I got into this heel thing in the early 2000s, blades were briefly in but went out before I realized what was going on. They never came back.

    For me it is clear: the blade heel is the most stylish of all, beating the stiletto hands down. But it is hard to make perfect: it has to be fairly skinny but wide, and has to be at the far end of the ankle.

    It's particularly potent when combined with a VERY square toe box, which went out even faster. Blade heels and pointy toes go well too. Round toe boxes? No thanks. Even rounded square ones don't do it for me.

    Here are 22 pictures of what it could be like, however it is worth mentioning that none below has the correct combination of both!

    http://share.ovi.com/channel/boots.squaretoe-blade

    Cowboy boots

    in For the guys

    Posted

    I have them both, and if the WR boots would be twice as expensive, they still would be MUCH better value for money than the Biondinis from Stiefel Laden. But as they cannot be directly compared, that is a pointless remark. The boots from Stiefel Laden are optimized for a narrow women's foot, too, and have a thin sole and not very durable. The heel is plastic. They look fantastic and very refined, though. WR makes anything you can dream of but they are real western boots, handcrafted, a little rougher in finish, but last a lifetime. It's all what you want. Ánd maybe you don't want all the mileage...

    NYC Heel Meet - 26 july 2008

    in Real Life Meetings

    Posted

    Arctic,

    You're awsome buddy! You know the deal with me...yesterday didn't live up to the hype.

    Here's a pic of my day yesterday. Made it about halfway. Tow driver was actually kinda funny about my ordeal, and took this great pic to sum up my not-so-glorious day....:o

    Only good thing was during the 5+ hours I was at the shop, I never changed back into my regular shoes. The 3 people at the garage I saw all day didn't seem to notice. Except the tow drive, who seemed to be amused.

    Thank you for doing the work once again. I am sorry things went the way they do. Let's talk soon.

    Heh, tough luck. Anyhow, you ended up with a cool picture.

    Shit happens, and as long as it doesn't hit the fan we're all good.

    NYC Heel Meet - 26 july 2008

    in Real Life Meetings

    Posted

    10pm soon... I am the last man standing, and my feet are getting tired. Still gonna try my new harleys! Time to go home. Quickly gonna eat something here, then on the subway to Battery park and then driving home. I will post still a few pics on share.ovi.com/boots.

    NYC Heel Meet - 26 july 2008

    in Real Life Meetings

    Posted

    Quick update from the field! The number of participants turned out to be lower than expected, but morale is high! Weather is great 25C/75F, and we have visited Battery Park, Chistopher street, the NY library, and now at 45th street on 5th ave. Time to refuel before the fashion section kicks in! I will post a picture every now and then on share.ovi.com/boots in the heelmeetny 2008 channel.

    manufacturers' decision process

    in For Everybody

    Posted

    I know nothing about the shoe business but odds are good that it is like any other. In that case: - the manufacturers often don't make any business decisions wrt style, sizes, price etc. They just manufacture. - styles and sizes are decided by design houses or design departments. Green light is then given by some business managers who have access to money for marketing, distribution, production, etc. - the business model is in essence very simple: you need to be able to sell a lot at low margins or a little at high margins - in any business, going after an established market is the safer bet but margin pressure is high. The fetish market fits that profile. Being early with a new product is often good, as you can temporarily rake in high margins to recap your initial investment. That is why products can often drop significantly in price over time. - in the fashion business, where demand is based on pereception and ambition, it is a very risky game to establish a new category (eg. men's hh shoes). Even at $£€300/pair, it is difficult to predict break even because forecasting the demand is next to impossible. Even us, who are probably the world's market experts on hh shoes, could not possibly come up with a style that would result into at least a few thousand pairs sold. - the channel is more important than the product: anyone in the B2C business knows that having a great product means nothing if it isn't easy to sell. Hh shoes for men are NOT at all easy to sell. There are a thousand threads here on this board on "try them on in store???". If that is even a problem for THIS audience, what kind of issue do you have in general retail? - All traditional retail works by supplying products for which there exists a proven demand, as having a product in inventory costs big money. There are important parameters like shelf and stock rotation, which all work against hh shoes for men. It is easy to prove that in the time it takes to sell one hh pair to men, you can at least sell 10 hh pairs to women. Or 50 pairs of regular shoes for that matter. Summary: This board has, say, 10k users which buy perhaps 5 pairs of hh shoes per year, assuming the opprtunity is 100x larger, that is still only 5M pairs a year. That doesn't move the needle at all. I'm sure that more shoes are sold in Manhattan during one week. The currently established business ecosystem for shoes and fashion in general runs like clockwork, does not favor bold moves as the risk outweighs the potential benefit and hh for men will remain a marginal phenomenon to be served by speciality stores irl and on the internet. I say that unless external demand gets created by the popularization of the concept by a celebrity or so, our purchasing behavior does nothing at all to influence the *mainstream* shoe business.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using High Heel Place, you agree to our Terms of Use.

  I accept