mlroseplant

On 8/11/2025 at 8:01 AM, higherheels said:

While looking through the forum about training for higher heels I repeatedly came across the topic of shortened tendons. Is this something we should take care of?

I remember even in my earlier days of getting more into heels this was already a topic, but I never had any problems so far.

Apparently some even want to achieve shortened tendons so they can wear only a certain minimum heel height, but I want to stay flexible. On one hand I'd like to wear my 12 + 13 cm heels out more and maybe even try some higher ones. On the other hand I go hiking a lot, where of course I want to continue wearing my hiking shoes 😉

I'm worried that the high heels part might become too much (especially in winter when there's not much hiking going on) and my tendons might shorten. Any opinions/tips are welcome!

 

@mlroseplant That's absolutely true, 1 cm makes a big difference in higher heights. 11 to 12 cm is still alright for me, but 12 to 13 cm is very noticable.

I think the Hot Chick 130 weren't designed for walking in the first place, more for sitting/posing. But hey, that's part of the challenge!

I'd say that I can already walk kind of well in them, but there's sure room for improvement. My bigger problem is that they get uncomfortable quickly and so I'm very limited with the occasions where I can wear them.

Haha, none of these shoes were meant for walking! On average, I break more shoes than most people buy in a year. However, in 2025 I don't think I've had any shoe failures so far (knock on wood). My interest in heels takes two different paths. Besides liking the way they look, I think of them as an athletic challenge, and most of my physical exercise consists of walking in heels. I have walked a documented total of about 4,000 km over the past decade in heels of at least 7 cm, and in recent years, I don't have anything lower than about 9 cm that I walk in. The 12 cm challenge proposed here will be something totally different for me, because now I will be going for sheer height/flexibility rather than endurance. And I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to accomplish that.

As far as shortened tendons, I can really tell when I've slacked off on the foot exercises and calf stretches for several days. I have to be very careful of that because of the nature of my time in heels. On the other hand, I don't live full time in heels, either, because I can't. I think you'll probably be ok with just the slightest attention to stretching your achilles, because you are not in heels full time, all the time. Whoever wishes for shortened tendons (and in real life, that number has to be exceeding rare) is a complete moron.

I didn't get in any 12+ cm time yesterday, but I did get a lot of 11 cm time in. I got in 5 km of walking between rainstorms yesterday, which was accomplished in the below pictured Prada mules. They are actually 15 cm, but with a 4 cm platform. They are freshly reheeled, as well. I call them my rain shoes, because they keep my feet out of the puddles!

For church, I wore my Miu Miu sandals, which are 14 cm with 3 cm platform. I spent the majority of the day in those. It is amazing how much difference an extra centimeter makes. I am fairly competent and comfortable at 11 cm, but 12 cm is really pushing it for me.

@higherheels I am glad that somebody is working on learning to walk in Hot Chicks. I have never actually seen anybody walk very well in them before, even on social media. I know that in my size, which is 40, the heel height of Hot Chicks is more like 137 mm, so that is indeed an accomplishment!

I did NOT do any of that stuff yesterday. I had to work my construction job, wearing boots I don't really like. If I make any progress today, I will let you know. I do plan on getting out and pounding the pavement in more normal (11 cm) heels in between rainstorms here.

Are your skorts something that you wear to church, or are they a little too informal? I would consider wearing a regular skirt to church, but I would never wear shorts. That's a personal preference, not an expectation.

I attended a neighborhood block party a couple of days ago. Yes, one of those stereotypical American events where they block off the street for an evening and all the neighbors have a get together, usually involving lots of food. Anyway, when I was about to leave, somebody finally commented on my shoes, which were tan Alaia sandals with broad straps and 4 1/2" block heels. It turned into one of those "How in the world?" kind of things. I said that I'd been working at it for 12 years, and I almost know what I'm doing now. What I should do from now on is ask something like, "Just exactly how interested are you in the subject, because I could go on at some length telling stories and explaining my methodology." I always feel like I give very unsatisfying answers because I am quite sure nobody wants to talk about the subject for more than about 30 seconds.

Here is an old and very bad quality picture, just so you get a vague idea of the shoes I was wearing.

If I may, perhaps I'll join you guys as well. My problem is not necessarily laziness (though I'm definitely lazy about other things, like cleaning out the garage), but the fact that I don't want anyone to see me until I have gained a certain amount of skill.

For that price, what's the quality like? The description warns of strong chemical odors upon unwrapping the package. That's always a good sign.

It's interesting how everybody has a different experience doing more or less the same thing. I really don't ever remember having trouble with my calves over the years. I can feel it even today if I take a rather long walk in 100 mm or better, but it is not really something I would call pain. They just feel tired, same as you would after doing anything physical. What still gets me if I overdo it, such as wearing 110+ mm for 6 hours, is arch cramping. It doesn't necessarily happen when I am wearing the shoes, but rather an hour or two after I take them off.

I've had just a very few similar experiences over the years. None of the shoes were very expensive, and I just let it go. I'm not going to start a feedback war or anything like that over 25 bucks.

One of these days I'm going to drag out the story (again) for those who haven't heard about the time I wore way too high of a heel too early in my high heel journey. I'm not surprised you faded pretty early if 12 cm was your first pair.

People point to the 1980s as being a good time for heels, but looking back through my old photos and watching old music videos, it was and it wasn't. Yeah, elevated heels were much more common back then, but I don't think I actually saw in person anybody wearing what I would call actual high heels. Taller mid heels, for sure, but 4 inch + was just not a thing in real life around here. Not even in college. The heels I thought were so tall at the time just weren't all that high compared to what I wear every day. I actually went shoe shopping with this girl one time, and she bought some black patent leather pumps which were about the highest heels I'd ever seen somebody actually wear. I never got the chance to actually measure them, but I'd estimate them to be right at 4"/10 cm. She wore them somewhat regularly, but then the next year she chose to study in Europe and I never saw her again after that. That is not 100% true, but close enough for this story.

Here is something similar in style and height to what the girl bought when I was with her. As I said, hers were black patent rather than suede.

Even though our town streets and sidewalks are in more of a state of disrepair than in years past, they are still quite acceptable. However, it's much better if one sticks to routes one knows well when the days grow short and it's dark during the walk. As far as rain, here are my favorite rain shoes. They keep my feet out of the puddles. Not much good for mud, though.

I'm going to put my vote in the 4 inch/10 cm camp, if you want to make the story believable. In my area, Latina real estate agents wear heels. Others do not.

Even though it was a pretty thin month on walking (I managed only 25 miles in July), I realized that pretty much all of my walking shoes needed reheeling. I took half a dozen pairs up to the cobbler all at once. For the next week, I will have to make more careful choices about what to wear on walks. I have definitely changed my tune about wearing and keeping heels in the last 12 years. Before, I always said that if I can't walk two miles in reasonable comfort, I won't keep the shoes. Now, although I will not accept uncomfortable heels, I do not put every pair I own through that particular rigor, particularly if they are really meant for dressier occasions.

What I did not take into account at first is the fact that although I may be able to walk in stilettos for two miles at a clip, the shoes might not be up to the challenge for too many cycles of that. Even if they are, it is so easy to put your heel down a crack in the sidewalk, thereby pretty much ruining them. Replacing heel tips every 10 miles or so is irritating as well.

My very first pair of heels was pretty similar to those. It was 1984, after all. Even back then, I never thought of them as high. I have no nostalgia for them at all.

I did a little image search, and found these pumps from the 1980s. So many women/girls used to wear these, and now they seem very unimpressive. Not quite kitten heels, but too close to it. To be sure, they are far better than Adidas rubber slides worn with socks.

Over the years I have done an about-face on my opinion of many things, but my hatred of kitten heels is not one of them!

I never though they were all that great in the first place. It's not that they are chunky looking, per se, but to me it looks like somebody took a normal stiletto heel, chopped it off, and then pressed this bent metal piece in behind where the regular heel was supposed to be. Having said that, I much prefer Blades to anything I've seen for sale in 2025.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, 8 cm stilettos, which used to be the gold standard when I was a kid, now look weirdly stumpy to me. I think if I could go back in time I would probably be rather disappointed by the shoes I remember so fondly. This probably has nothing to do with the shoes themselves, but rather my constant exposure to 11-12 cm shoes that makes 8 cm shoes look funny to me. I suppose this effect happens in other ways also. As an electrician, if I run large conduit for a few days or a few weeks, e.g., 3 inch, "normal" size conduit like 3/4 or 1 inch looks absolutely tiny and ridiculous.

I will admit to having a couple of pairs of  extreme-type shoes, which I bought because I wanted to see if I could actually walk in them. The answer is no, and the problem is two-fold: 1) They are made so cheaply that they're not even nice to put on, much less walk in, and 2) I do not enjoy the experience like I thought I would. Even though no one has ever seen me in these shoes, I walk so badly and awkwardly that I feel silly. If I make myself practice, I do get a little bit better after a short time of warmup, but on the whole I do not like wearing them. And yet still I aspire to wear them. I cannot explain this paradox.

I will say one thing for practicing in 13+ cm heels. After wearing them for 15 minutes, your 11-12 cm heels feel like butter! I wish I had some evidence to actually prove it, but I feel like I walk so much better in normal height high heels after spending a quarter of an hour in extreme heels.

I've got about half a dozen pairs that I wear regularly for each season, so there's about a dozen, or roughly 10%. Of these, there are some that I don't really wear out in public because they're a little beat up looking. It's not that I never wear the others, but the occasions are relatively rare. For example, I have a bunch of Steve Madden pumps that have gotten a lot of picture time here, but very little wear time in the real world.

Speaking of wear time, I have been very lazy this month about keeping up on my walking. It's been an incredible year so far up until this month. Hopefully I'll get my act together again next month.

I have thought about this for a couple of days, and I still don't know what I would wear for a race. Actually, I absolutely know what I would wear, but they don't meet the 10 cm required steepness. I don't feel like any of my boots which do meet the requirement have sturdy enough construction for a race. I suppose I would wear one of the pairs shown below. Even though they are mules, they fit quite snugly and are sturdy. In fact, the black pair has over 275 miles on it (them?), and counting!

I think my feet look ok, but I consider my hands to be unattractive. There is no way I would want to draw attention to them. I keep four right hand nails on the longer side (when I can) for the purpose of playing fingerstyle guitar.

Also, there are few enough people who can walk well in 12 cm, much less 15. I have never seen anybody in real life walk well in 12 cm. There are a few on the internet who do a amazing job.

As far as I can tell, even the second and third tier manufacturers keep their heel heights at least somewhat proportional to the shoe size. I should have made it more clear--my personal collection of pumps, which are mostly Steve Madden, all measure between 11 and 12 cm. But this is on size 9, so I can't really say I've reached 12 cm in steepness on whatever they use as the standard measurement. I think it's size 7/38. This is a problem I've run into fairly consistently. Nobody much makes anything 13-14 cm (single sole). It's either 12 cm or below, or 15 cm or above, nothing in between. It's like there's a fetish line, and evidently that line is right at 12 cm. It's even hard to get a full 12 cm outside of the designer brands. I guess some designer brands, such and Christian Louboutin and Brian Atwood do make a number of specialty 13 cm, but nothing for us plebs.

I also really like the aesthetics of 12 cm, but there are certain shoes I like that are higher than that, particularly some of the 14 cm from Maison Ernest, which I can't afford. Or these days I should say I WON'T afford. I can do 10 cm all day, 11 cm for a good chunk of time, still workin' on 12 cm. Keep in mind that this measurement is on size 9 USW/ 40 EU, so my 12 cm is maybe the equivalent of 11.5 cm on size 7/38. Attached is a picture of my favorite 14 cm Maison Ernest mules which I will never own because of their ridiculous price, and I doubt I could ever walk in them anyhow. Look at that ankle flexibility!