aros

Actually, in the past few weeks while I've gone grocery shopping, I have been looking at women, how many wear some kind of heels now in the summertime. They are rather few, I think I've seen less than 10 women in three weeks who wore even the lowest, clunky type of heeled shoes. About three females wore stiletto heels > 2", of which only one younger woman had really high heels. Perhaps it is not a typical place to dress up in heels, or it depends on the wearer. Today I saw a sight for sore eyes though, a blonde in her upper 20's or lower 30's (with boyfriend). Despite several rain showers, she wore a really short pink dress, had a well-defined - possibly artificially enhanced - bosom and perhaps 3" black sandals.

why don't you try to wear them while you drive,

I'm a newbie in this hobby, so I yet haven't went out much in heels at all. A few short walks late at night when nobody is outside. Then today I had an errand, and just for fun I brought a pair of pink 5.25" stilleto shoes to see what it is like to drive in them. Except for that I had to adjust the angle to the pedals - I really think automatic transmission would be in favour if you drive a lot in high heels - it went rather smooth. Then I switched to regular guy's shoes when I went to the food supermarket. On my way back, I switched back to heels because it was so fun.

Once I got home, there is a 50-100 meter walk to the basement entrance. I decided I didn't want to switch back, so I carefully looked around and walked the last stretch in my heels. One or two cars passed on the road, and I saw two other people on the other side, but otherwise I was alone - in bright daylight on a Sunday afternoon! I didn't like to walk around the whole building, so I took the shortcut through the basement as planned. And now I'm back home. It was thrilling, my legs were shaky once I got inside.

Since there are people who can run with prostethic legs (I've seen it on TV), walking - although in high heels - shouldn't be rocket science. As for that matter, I'm sure I've seen at least one or more women with a broken leg in plaster, who wore a high-heeled shoe on the good foot and clutches to keep the balance. I think that is close to one-legged hopping. (shouldn't this thread be in For Everybody?)

I have one fiction fantasy that goes something like this. Imagine a game show, something similar to Fear Factor. The contestant has to go through 3-5 different tasks in order to win the grand prize. For every task, he or she gets a very vague description what it is about, and you get to ask further questions. Too specific questions are not allowed. Once you are satisfied with the answers, you get to choose between three levels how far you will complete the task. For the first task, these levels could be worth $100, $300 or $1000 depending how long or how much you will do. For the second task, the prize levels go up to $500, $1500 or $5000, and so on. The grand prize in the end depends on which choices you made. The tasks can be anything physical or mental. Endurance, strength, dexterity, brain puzzles, stress test and so on. Now, take this scenario and put Mr. Tough Guy into the game show. He has just completed his first two tasks and is about to take on the final one. -"This task is an endurance task", says the host. "You can choose between doing it for 30 minutes for $1000, one hour for $3000 or two and half hours for $10000. Now, please ask your questions." -"Does it take a lot of strength?", asks Tough Guy. -"No." -"Is it dangerous?" -"Not really, if you are careful." -"Do people usually do this?" -"Yes, a lot of people perform this task daily." -"Do you think I have ever done something like it?" -"Umm.. no." -"Should I know anyone who does it?" -"Yes, most certainly. Most of us do." -"This intrigues me. It can't be that hard task if most people do, except me.. the extra $10000 is very tempting. Yeah, I'll go for the 2.5 hours." -"Are you sure? You can not change your mind afterwards. If you fail the task, all your winnings up to now are lost." -"Yes, I'm positive. Go ahead, show me the task." ... and at this point, the host pulls the curtain and a pair of your favorite high heeled shoes or boots are zoomed in. -"You gotta be kidding", says Mr. Tough Guy. -"No... now lets go street heeling" says the host. What do you think? Wouldn't this be an interesting game show? Of course not every episode should end in the same way, but if this game show existed, it could very well be one of many hundreds of different tasks. In my opinion, the host truthfully answered all the questions from Tough Guy.

i'm 46-46,5 europe size [..] probably 12uk/14us size for womans, but i'm not for sure maybe its half size more or less...

I also wear EUR 46 in men's shoes, both summer and winter. In rare cases I can fit into a pair of 45. Recently I bought my first pair of 5" patent pumps, sold as EUR 46 and turned out to be marked as USW 14. They are a bit too tight in the toes, to the point I can only stand or walk in them for a few minutes before the toes begin to hurt. I can sit or lie (!) in them for perhaps a few hours before the pain is too much. I felt like I had not done my homework - with pointed toes and/or high heels you probably should order one size larger than usually if not specified otherwise? I didn't bother to return them, but may eventually try to sell them cheap second hand.

While waiting for these heels to arrive, I also "scored" a really inexpensive pair of 5.25" pink thigh-high PVC boots. I haven't received them yet. They were listed as UK11/US14, and expect them to be too tight as well. In that case, they would also go on my "sell cheap" list. Now I'm actually waiting for a second pair of size 46 pumps to arrive, sold second hand by a guy who wears 45 but they were too large on him. I hope they will fit a bit better...

I went as far as measuring my foot; it is 28.3 cm from toe to heel. I sent a few emails to online shoe resellers asking for their opinion. I described the dilemma that I had already received a pair of 5" in USW 14 that were too tight, and in case I would order a pair from them, if they recommended size 15 or even 16. The answer I received from one store confused me a lot. Based on the figures I had given, they recommended USW 13... ok, maybe their shoes already accommodate for the pointed toe and heel height, but on their web site they list many shoes as US 16 = EUR 46.

In the mean time, can someone tell me if USW 14 on heels in the range of about 4-6" generally equal to EUR 44, 45 or 46? And am I correct about the assumption I should add one or two sizes? Furthermore I understand that US, UK and EUR sizes to some extent overlap eachother. I have seen sellers on eBay who have pretty much identical shoes or boots in both UK11 / US14 and UK12 / US14 at the same time.

Actually when I arrived at the High Heel Place, I expected to find some kind of "High Heels for Dummies" guide, either in the general section or here on the forum. Maybe I didn't look close enough, but I couldn't find something exactly like that. Perhaps it is not possible to write a general one, given that different shoe manufacturers fit differently, but I think if one does not yet exist, it would be a great addition, both for newbie guys and perhaps women who have not tried much high heels.

Best regards

Well, my user name resolves to two cities, of which I live in the western one. I got pointed to this forum by an old discussion thread on Passagen.

Hi, I'm a new member on this forum and has just taken my first steps (heh) in heels, after being an admirer for many years. I am a bit over 30 years old, living in Sweden and working in the IT sector. Among my main interests are computers and music, often in combination. I hope to have a good time here, although perhaps not very frequent.