mlroseplant

20 hours ago, Bubba136 said:

From our perspective the girl wearing the shoes isn’t the focus.  It’s the shoes.  I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned the similarity between this photo and the famous older picture of the black panten leather pump with the 7” heel through the tennis ball 🎾 .  I am certain that it still is around on the internet somewhere and might even be in the Hhplace archives.  

Yeah, I seem to remember that one, but wasn't it a billiard ball? I did a quick Google search, and was unable to come up with it. There are many similar images, but not the one you're talking about, and I'm pretty sure I know which one that is.

This is where our opinions diverge. While such images are kind of cool, it is never just about the shoes, it's about the total package, and I'd much rather see if he or she (in my case, probably a she) can actually walk in whatever shoes are being publicized. According to reporting, Zendaya's limit is Louboutin Hot Chicks. Evidently, those about broke her. Probably sensational reporting, but that's what I heard.

I don't know anything about her either, other than she is quite attractive, and evidently likes to wear high heels a lot.

I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that my shoe collection is down to at most 105, possibly 104. I had two shoe failures over the weekend. First, a strap broke on my BCBGeneration Quintin wedge sandals. I might be able to fix it, I might not. This is not a super big deal because I only use them as house slippers, and there are usually more available on Poshmark or some such outlet.

The second failure, and this resulted in outright disposal, is my Sam & Libby Slashlin derbies. I had mentioned in an earlier post that about 15% of my collection hadn't been worn in over a year, so I decided to dig into some of the 15% and see if there was a reason why. 20 minutes before I was supposed to be at church, I pulled on these lace up shoes and they were very, very stiff, to the point where a substantial part of the fake patent leather started to peel off when flexed enough to get the shoes on. I'm editing out a large portion of the story, but I eventually decided to wear them anyway, one last time as a farewell. They weren't bad, and actually I caught myself on camera walking and carrying myself like I think I want to, the modest 3 7/8" steepness of the shoes probably aiding in that.

I got home just fine and snapped these pictures (more about that in a moment), but didn't change clothes right away. I had some errands to run, and I didn't want to change clothes just yet. I have always thought that the shanks were a bit weak in these shoes, and afternoon proved that to be true. At some point, the right heel completely buckled under, even though it is still firmly attached. Peeling finish or not, that made my decision for me. I am not that upset. There's a reason I haven't worn these much--they kinda ugly!

In other news, I got a new (to me) motorbike over the weekend. I have toyed with the idea of getting a maxi-scooter for years, and now I have finally pulled the trigger. It's a Yamaha Majesty 400, and so far I love it. My reasons for wanting such a machine are several: 1) Built-in storage capacity, making it much easier to commute to work and get groceries where I would normally have to use the car. 2) It's got a fairing, allowing me to ride in more comfort in more weather conditions. 3) It's a scooter. I can ride in heels again. I will miss shifting my own gears, but whatever. The only thing that remains to be seen is the fuel economy. By all accounts, it's supposed to get up there around 60 mpg, but that remains to be seen.

9 hours ago, Bubba136 said:

If the foot bed has a varnish coating or two covering it do you consider that thickness, also?  

 

I made the decision long ago to stop at 1/8" increments. I should just go metric, as the millimeter is a finer increment than the 16th of an inch.

____________

Today is probably the final batch of statistics I have, and it's much simpler than heel height--it's shoe style. I can't think of any more useful information that I can draw out of the data I have collected.

Sandals: 60.4%

Pumps: 16.0%

Oxfords: 4.7%

Boots: 4.7%

Clogs: 10.4%

Other: 3.8%

_____________

Percentage of sandals that are mules: 73.4

Percentage of all shoes that are backless, i.e., mules and clogs: 56.6

Number of weeks that I am overdue for a pedicure: 2

Time to get the show on the road. It's supposed to actually be warm next week.

Being as it's Saturday, I guess it's time for a more substantial statistics dump. I did try to do an estimate on how many of my heels are dressy vs. how many are casual. I have decided that this is too subjective and difficult a task to get an accurate number. I think it is clear that clogs can never be dressy, but how about wooden heeled sandals? I think usually not, but my Alaia sandals surely come close. Can a wedge sandal ever be dressy? Yes, but under what circumstances? Anyway, that's a fool's errand, so I all I can say is that roughly 40% of my shoes you might call "dressy," and the other 60% are more "casual."

The more normal statistics are heel height and footbed steepness. For absolute heel height, as measured up the back of the heel, but perpendicular to the floor, we have the following:

Less than 4": 14.2%

4" to including 4 1/2": 31.1%

Over 4 1/2" to including 5": 28.3%

Over 5": 26.4%

Over the past several years, there has been a shift from the third category to the second. This is because a smaller percentage of my shoes are platforms than was the case before, so absolute heel height has shrunk in certain categories. However, in the next batch of numbers, you can see that this has caused the number to shift in the footbed steepness category even more dramatically. Steepness, for those of you who don't know, or who use a different definition, I measure steepness by subtracting out the height of the platform, if any. For example, my Nine West Plantera pumps have an impossibly tall 5 1/2" heel, but they also have a 1" platform, so the total steepness is a less impressive 4 1/2". I started at 3 1/2 inches because that is where to my mind that heels start feeling like heels.

Less than 3 1/2": 15.1%

3 1/2" to including 4": 28.3%

Over 4 to including 4 1/2": 46.2%

Over 4 1/2": 10.4%

As you can see, there is a big increase in the more than 4 to 4 1/2" category. If you included steepnesses that were right at 4" in that category, the number would be even more overwhelming. I guess this is where I like to be, but there is a variation even within this category. With 4 inch or less, I can just slide/pull them on and go. With 4 1/2 inch, that is highly inadvisable without preflight.

As always, if I have a shoe which has no footbed liner or cushion, which is often the case with wooden heels, I "discount" the heel/platform height by 1/4" so that we are comparing heights more equally.

13 hours ago, Shyheels said:

That’s quite a lot of pairs! I’ve about a dozen pair of boots and feel rather extravagant for having so many. Mind, I gave much more limited living space than you and a dozen pair of tall boots takes up a lot if room.

I do try to make certain they all get worn regularly though.

I can’t imagine trying to wear regularly 106 pairs of heels 

Well, you really can't. As you see, I've got 15% of my collection that I've gone over a year without wearing. Maybe, MAYBE if I worked an office job and wore heels truly full time, I could juggle 100+ pairs, but you've got to figure, I go outside in heels about three times a week. Church on Sunday, choir on Wednesday, and one other miscellaneous time per week. Maybe more in the summer. I suppose the math theoretically works out in that case (around 150-200 wears per year) , but not in real life. I'm not going to put on 12 cm patent leather pumps to go pick up a few pork chops at the grocery store. Especially not in the summer.

There's another statistic I guess I could pull--dressy heels vs. casual heels. A bit subjective, perhaps, but not too much so.

The statistic of the day is that 34.9%  of my collection are stiletto heels. That percentage might be rather higher if I didn't have an affinity for wooden heeled sandals and clogs, which make up a mere 27.4%. There is no real way to measure, since shoes do not have odometers or hour meters on them, but I would guess that the 27.4% gets worn in the real world several times as much as the 34.9%.

23 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

Cheap construction 

Yup, that's what I figured.

15 hours ago, Cali said:

That's interesting because either JS's fit or they don't. But if they fit they are real easy to walk in.  In fact I will be wearing my JS knee boots today with faux suede and block 4 inch heels.  A wet day with down pours.

I'm not saying that they don't fit, I'm saying that they don't last very long without failing in one way or another.

13 hours ago, Shyheels said:

I’ve never really taken the trouble to analyse my walk, although I know I could be better, smoother and more fluid. I guess I think if it more like ice skating - so many things needs to come together for you to do it well. I tend to go for overall movement, the whole of the motion, rather than try to break it down into parts. To me that complicates thinks too much.

I suppose there is something to be said for just walking, but so many people do it badly, even in flats. I suppose it's just like singing--everybody can do it, but few do it well. There is more to the story for me, though. I have always been fascinated by gait, at first among our four-legged friends. Even though it was considered a "fault," I always found it rather charming when my German Shepherd Dog mix, Sadie, would sort of turn at an angle when she broke into a trot, because otherwise, her trailing and leading feet would hit each other. At one time, I could tell you how many miles per hour was the line of demarcation between walk and trot, trot and canter, canter and gallop. If I overanalyze human gait, I come by it honestly. I'm a bit of a gait geek.

I blame Janet Jackson for almost singlehandedly ruining pop music, but that doesn't make it so, init? In other news, I have completed analysis of the shoe inventory data. I'm thinking about doling it out a little bit at a time, in an attempt to create more traffic on this forum. Or am I thinking crazy? If that is a dumb idea, I'll just dump all the numbers at once this weekend, when I have more time.

As a movie trailer equivalent, I'll recap from above and confirm that indeed, I have 106 pairs of high heels, but add the recent revelation that 60.4% of them are sandals. That is an incremental increase from last time, but not a dramatic one. It's not surprising, being as you don't catch me in an enclosed shoe from May to December.

One more interesting statistic--I decided to quickly count how many pairs I hadn't worn outside in over a year, and came up with 15.7%, so therefore, if I feel the need to thin the herd, there's about 1/6 of them right there.

6 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

Good luck I'm very disappointed in every Asos shoes I've bought. 

Just out of curiosity, why? I wonder if it's for the same reason that I've been disappointed by every Jessica Simpson shoe I've bought.

I recently bought these Söfft Willa shooties on a whim. A nostalgic whim. Early in my heeling days, in late 2012, I bought an identical pair brand new from Amazon. I can remember wearing them quite a bit in the early days, as they were fairly tame at 3 1/2" in height, and had very plain styling. I cannot remember why I got rid of them. I do seem to remember this spot around the zipper that caused me some discomfort, but the memory isn't that vivid. In any case, that does not seem to be a problem with this new-to-me pair. I've worn them outside long enough to know that there are no comfort issues. I do remember a point where I got rid of almost all my shoes that were less than 4", as if that were some badge of honor or something. Maybe that had something to do with it. I don't suffer from such hangups now, and every once in a while, you need something in that 3 - 3 1/2" range.

One thing that has not changed is the noise level on these shoes. I remember my old pair being super loud. Part of that was being self-conscious, but they are on the loud side. As I said before, they've got 3 1/2" high heels with no platform, and the heels are cone-ish shaped, and kind of underslung, cowboy boot style. The heels are approximately 1 inch thick at the bottom, so they definitely do not make a "clicking" sound. Their sound is much lower in pitch. What I did not manage to get into the pictures is that there is a short zip on the inside of the shoes, and the buckle you can see is merely decorative.

The weather has been really lousy here for a couple of weeks, so I don't have a picture of me wearing them. It's back to the top of the washing machine for now.

I didn't think any of the girls looked particularly "grungy," but this is not a normal situation. The kids were told in no uncertain terms that this was a dress-up occasion, and the only participants were those in the concert band who are motivated on their instrument(s). This was a voluntary event. Therefore, you kind of had a better class of losers show up. There were a few thick soled boots with dresses, but not that many. Most girls wore normal flat dress shoes, either ballerinas, mary janes, or something like that. My son wore a suit and tie, but not every boy went that far. Many did.

The question is, is any of this worth it? Yeah, you could start an office battle, but would you want to? I know I wouldn't. And just exactly how bad is it? Does this happen daily? Hourly? What is the demeanor of the ladies? Snooty? Playful? Bossy? There are way too many questions that simply can't be answered in print. Perhaps the easiest way if you just can't stand it is to have your station moved. Even that is not without consequences. Let's face it--it just ain't easy bein' us.

I ran into the same woman last night at my local school's music contest. As is turns out, her son and mine were performing in the same ensemble. We were both wearing heels again, but toned down considerably from Easter Sunday. I elected to wear some 3 1/2 inch booties, and she was wearing what appeared to be her "normal" 2 1/2 booties. We did not discuss shoes in front of strangers. The kids played very well, and received top marks for their efforts.

I saw more high school girls in heels than I've seen in a long time. There had to have been at least 10. Zero stilettos, but hey, we can't have it all. At least not all at once. Top height was probably 3 1/2", so nothing crazy, which is probably good. These girls have a lot of practice ahead of them.

I have just finished a complete shoe inventory. It's been well over a year since the last one. The reason I haven't released it yet is because I haven't yet had time to compile statistics. The raw data is all there, but it doesn't really tell you much about the collection, other than that there are 106 pairs of heels in it, plus 2 duplicates of my favorite sandals that I keep buying.

The total number has remained fairly stable for several years. I was glancing at some lists from years past (I didn't always record in the same detail that I do now), and I can tell you that sometime between 2018 and 2021, my collection grew from 56 pairs to low 100s, and has stayed in the low 100s since 2021. I would be able to get it down under 100 pretty easily if I could just be a little more ruthless, but for now, everything once again has its place, and I've even got a couple of empty spaces available.

Happy Easter to those who celebrate, but alas, I have no Easter picture to show. To tell the truth, my heath took another turn for the worse last week, and I'm still getting over it, to the point where I had to beg off my hymn leading duties to another person because my voice would not tolerate that much use. I put everything I had into the choir anthem, and that was all I had. When I got home, all I wanted to do was take a nap. Which I did.

I wore a traditional men's suit in a sort of light gray/silvery fabric with a purple shirt and tie, then boring old black oxfords with 4 1/4" stiletto heels. They are some of my oldest shoes, and to think when I first got them over 10 years ago, I thought they were incredibly steep, almost to the point of not being able to walk in them normally at all. I had higher at the time, but nothing that high with no platform. Today, of course, they are a little bit of nothing.

The only thing of interest that can be told with no pictures is a conversation I had with another church member whom I know somewhere between acquaintance and friend. She has a son who plays in the school band with my son. She is one of those people who often wears heels to church, but not by our definition. We're talking the 2 - 2 1/2" range block heels. On this Sunday, she approached me after the service while I was tearing down equipment and said, "I'll bet I have taller heels than you do today." Both of us were wearing flared pants that more or less completely covered our heels, so I said, "OK, let's see what you've got." We both pulled up our pant legs, and what she had on were black suede ankle boots with about a 4 inch slim but not stiletto heel, and about a 1 inch platform.

She assessed my oxfords, and determined, "Nah, I guess I've fallen just a bit short of the mark. But I wanted to show you, because I don't wear these very often, and I'm not very good at walking in them." In actuality, she seemed to be doing just fine.

Ah, we've started a whole new thread on this subject, which is probably a wise decision. Without getting into great detail about it, I have found that yes, indeed, the "push off" is probably more important than the step forward. After all, other than momentum, the leading foot, which we all tend to focus on, provides no energy at all to get us from Point A to Point B. So it is really these series of pushes from the trailing foot that keeps us moving.

The question is how to transfer the energy from one foot to another. It is my belief that the best looking way is for the bottom of the trailing foot to be perpendicular to the ground at the time of power transfer. This may also coincide with being the most efficient way to walk. Your mileage may vary. What I do not find efficient, though somewhat attractive, is excessive movement of the opposite hip immediately after power transfer. It might be more natural for biological females to walk this way, but it is mostly an affectation of models and beauty queens. Which is not to say that we can't take cues from these people, but their example needs to be toned down for the street.

The main thing I have found is that there needs to be fluidity and relaxedness when walking in heels, however that presents itself. While at the same time retaining an upright posture to an almost rigid degree. Particularly, pay attention to your head. As we get older, it for some dumb reason becomes easier for us to jut the head forward, ahead of the neck, instead of keeping it on top where it belongs. That doesn't make any damn sense to me, but I only know that it is so. I have to consciously fight "turtle neck." That alone can completely ruin the effect of heels.

Pay attention to all of these things, but relax. I know, nearly impossible, init?

6 hours ago, Tech said:

And the Winner of the 2024 Best Dressed Male in heels goes too....

Thanks for playing folks, see you all again next year..

Too soon, evidently.  .  .

I ran across this ad on one of my social media feeds. I have been getting ads from them for some time now, but didn't realize they made high(ish) heels at all. They mostly make work boots or wannabe work boots.

However, it is obvious, after the slightest investigation, that the juxtaposition of the ad copy and this particular photo is a complete accident. These boots are not intended for men, but I had hoped so for several seconds. I will say that they do up to size 12, not skipping `10.5 and 11.5, which is fairly impressive.

I just did a complete rearrange/reassessment of my collection less than a week ago. But not a complete inventory where I commit several hours to using pen and paper. I haven't done that in over two years. I kind of wish I were smart enough to get all of this stuff on the computer, but I'm not. I have several hand written lists that I've made over the years, and it's interesting to compare the lists to see how my tastes have changed somewhat in that time, starting somewhere around 2015.

Anyway, I have 105 pairs of heels. It seems to me that it's too many, because there's no way I can really wear them all. Back when I had 50 pairs, I could sort of claim that I really wore them all and not be lying much. When I do get around to doing a current inventory, I think I should include a spot in each shoe's statistics that estimates how many times I've worn a particular pair in the last year, in the last two years. I think that would help me reduce my collection down to something more reasonable.

Sometimes, that decision gets made for me. I got rid of about 10 pair recently because of damage, either catastrophic or incremental. I documented elsewhere that the heel snapped clean in half on my most worn, and on of my favorite pairs of shoes. And at the other end of the spectrum, I knocked the cobwebs off my Nine West Dance Card mules, which I really like, but have rarely worn. The colored portion was peeling off the leather everywhere. No fixing that!

Anyway, hopefully I can report on my shoe situation soon in a little bit more detail.

Yup, I get you. It sure is nice to see that you're still around. I think we chose almost the same boots to wear, See & cf. my thread, p. 85. I like the slight pop of color along with it.

Happy Palm Sunday, everyone. It sure was cold and rainy for the load-in yesterday. It was cold and less rainy for the load-out. I had to set my camera back in the garage so it wouldn't get wet. One thing about the major religious holidays is that church attendance is way up compared to normal. Next Sunday at Easter there is a chance we'll have a packed sanctuary, which I haven't seen in years. As an aside, my Jewish friend from the Twin Cities just sent me pictures of her Purim service, and it looked well attended also. She wasn't wearing heels, though!

I didn't necessarily wear anything different than normal, but I did get caught up on ironing last week when I was sick, so my shirt and pants haven't seen the light of day for some time, even though they are not new. Also having not gotten much love lately (judging from the cobwebs I had to knock off of them) are my BCBGeneration Sassafras boots. I figured this was one of the last chances I'd have to wear them for the season. The only thing I really don't like about them is that they are really too big around for me, and an inch too tall by my estimation.

I hadn't been walking for 8 days because of my illness, and I almost overdid it today. I walked 3 miles (in other boots) and wore these boots for about 4 hours directly after. My feet actually cramped up a little bit as I was trying to get the boots off.

20 hours ago, Bubba136 said:

Thank you for your comment, Shyheels.  The identity slug, beneath my initial symbol above, shows that I have posted 13.3k comments over the time I have been a member here.  I have related this part of my history before.  A long time ago.  It is the way it happened.   I felt that if we were going to become involved to a point where a lifetime commitment was possible, then that commitment should be based upon the absolute truth if it was going to succeed.  Our commitment was complete and successful.  The only problem was that It didn’t last long enough.  My wife passed away after only 36 years together.  We were the same age.  We should still be going strong.  You cannot imagine how much I miss her.  I realize that this is “off subject”.  Please forgive me for reminiscing.

You know I've never been one to worry about meandering conversation. In fact, my intended reply which is back on topic seems so silly and petty following your statements, that I have decided not to say anything about walking mechanics at this time. Because, in the grand scheme of things, who really cares? Thank you for sharing your story, Bubba.

That looks like deterioration similar to what I've been experiencing lately. In fact, I just got rid of about half a dozen pairs because of it. Unless your shoes are full grain leather, I think this is bound to happen sooner or later, and I will venture to say that it will happen with increasing frequency over the next few years. You see, neither of us much like what is being offered these days style-wise, so we are pretty much stuck with older shoes. Unless those older shoes were particularly expensive, and sometimes even if they were, this is going to continue.

As far as the heel cap goes, I feel your pain. I wouldn't give you two cents for the heel caps on those hollow, plastic molded heels. I remember when me and the ex-wife were first married, she bought a pair of what I thought were expensive shoes at the time. Somewhat similar in heel height and style to your Cathy Jeans. Within a month, she had lost a heel cap, and I was horrified to see what that heel was actually made of--plastic. I didn't know all that much about shoes at the time.

Ah, a subject near and dear to my heart, and one which I have probably spent way too much time contemplating. Aside from a few fetish people, the most recent example being the "leaner" guy who posted elsewhere on this forum, I think we can all agree that the ideal situation is to appear as though walking in heels is completely effortless.

I do agree that there are a ton of fairly useless videos out there, and a few that actually give horrible advice. As you have surely discovered, there are a few exponents out there who still advise walking toe-to-heel, something I defy somebody to actually accomplish. We'll make exceptions for ballerinas and professional Latin dancers, but it's a patently ridiculous assertion that anybody should ever walk this way. Nobody walks that way, even in bare feet. That being said, one definitely does not want to strike the ground aggressively with the heel, it is there to act as a stabilizer for just an instant until the ball of the foot can contact the ground. Ignore this advice at your peril! Don't ask me how I know.

So it all comes down to what you really want to accomplish with your walk. It has been the subject of much debate just exactly how much femininity, if any, that a guy needs to emulate while walking in heels. I don't mind striving toward the more feminine looking walk, but more important to me is attempting to minimize my natural bowleggedness. Therefore, I spend a lot of effort trying to walk with my knees together, something that is not traditionally natural for me. This becomes more and more difficult the steeper you go, for reasons I cannot really explain.

I see I have STILL not answered your question, and I cannot do so at this time, as I have run out of time. I gotta go to work. If there is still interest in the next couple of days, I will continue.