trickrider1

Wow, love those boots 9inchheel, what brand are they?

I would agree with other comments that these events are no doubt fun, but lets face it, it probably does very little to actually further the cause of making society more accepting of guys wearing heels as the event is meant to be "silly".  However, there are likely to be other shy heelers in these events who welcome this opportunity to get out and show off their style and superior walking skills. So those of us who actually know what we are doing will breeze through these events in style while the typical guys will fumble along making complete clowns of themselves but at least they are willing to try and that's more than a lot of men would ever do.

I really want to do this.  Any information about where and when such a walk is coming up would be greatly appreciated.  It's a cause I totally believe in on many different levels, both for what it supports, but also in how it works to break down gender based style barriers.  Just as a thought,  I truly do not believe that any heel loving man would ever in his life cause pain and abuse to a woman.  Perhaps society needs a "wake up call" on this.

I'm not sure if this may post twice as it didn't appear to upload.  Anyway, I'm curious if any of you have read the book "The Sex Life of the Foot and Shoe", which was written back in the 1970's by a podiatrist.  It's a very interesting and informative book that will no doubt answer or confirm many of the questions or theories that you've had about shoes including history of styles, what drives shoe design, the type of personality that leans toward certain styles, etc.  It's particularly interesting coming from a "foot doctor" as they are notorious for wanting us to all wear the ugliest shoes known to mankind, with only foot and ankle surgeons being even worse.

Flexibility is something that simply takes time to obtain.  Albeit some people or more naturally flexible then others.  About twenty years ago I became determined to be able to do full splits, both straddle and or with one leg in front and the other behind.  I worked at it for six months and attained that goal.  I can still do them with just the slightest amount of warming up.  I would suggest a bit at a time,  work both your plantarflexion which is when you point your foot out straight and dorsiflexion which is the opposite direction.  You can do a lot of this just sitting in a chair and pointing your feet as hard as you can stand it until your arches start to ache.  Dorsiflexion exercises can be done by placing your foot flat on the floor and leaning forward as far as possible while keeping the foot flat.  Taking your hand and rolling the foot all around is also valuable.  I've done a lot of gymnastics and have coached the sport with great emphasis on flexibility.  I'm also very familiar with what it takes to regain flexibility in helping my wife recovery from a severe ankle fracture.

I like a lot of styles including classic stiletto heels without a platform, but my true favorites are anything with a substantial platform.  The platform can be wood, cork, foam, rubber, etc., but overall I love the look and especially like seeing it on women but also like wearing them myself.  This ranges from platform mules to thigh high boots.  Anyone else a platform lover?

I too love the feel, maybe the element of challenge, the element of "rebelling" against conventionality.  Even if my truly high stuff is only around home, it's great all the same.  I like "elevation" whether it's mountains, flying airplanes, standing on a running horse or being a half foot higher than what I'm endowed with.

Yes, I own quite a few cowboy boots, probably about 20 pair right now all but one pair are women's.  Thirty years ago women's cowboy boots were really quite limited in styles and the guys had the cool stuff, but that has totally changed for the most part.  So I much prefer the women's styles, first for style and secondly for fit... I agree "wood and metal", men's sizes are just too big or actually it's that they are too wide.  I mostly have Ariats, some Justins, a couple Tony Lama's, Tin Haul, Corral, and Dan Post rounding out the bunch.  I have a new pair of Dan Post "Shooting Star" boots on their way... I really hope they fit as they're the last pair available in the country from a limited run for only one vendor.

I voted a #3, but it all depends on the shoes or boots in question and where I'm wearing them.  With only a couple exceptions, every single piece of footwear I own came from the "women's department".  That is due to a couple factors: 1.  I like it and I like the styles better,  even women's sneakers look trimmer and neater than an equivalent men's version of the exact same style.  2. I have relatively small feet, so they fit better.

So in the sense of being comfortable wearing "women's shoes or boots", I'm a strong 4.  But that has to be explained, because all my Ariat, Justin, Tony Lama, Tin Haul, Corral, etc. cowgirl boots, barely look girly and they aren't "heels".  Same goes for the Docs, Danskos, etc.  Now, if I'm going to wear my platform clogs with wood soles, now I'm getting into 2 and 3 territory,  confident but more for casual evening outings, concerts, dinner, etc.  But if I'm going to pull out my stiletto platforms, I'm afraid that puts me as a 1.

Heelster, your discussion with the boot sales rep was very informative.  It is extraordinarily frustrating to think that sales of cowboy boots have been so adversely affected by one movie.  It is amazing how narrow minded some people are.  Fortunately, I think that's more of a regional problem as I really don't anyone out here in this area that's not very far removed from it's old west roots really cares if someone thinks cowboy boots are "gay" or not.  Same probably goes for Texas.  You can wear some fairly high heeled cowboy boots around here and the most likely attention will be somebody wanting to know where you got them. 

OK, I'm with you guys.  I'm in the same camp as for not ever having had a desire to be a woman or look like one, no transgender issues going on, no desire to be feminine,  but once you get below my knees and down to those feet, the women's footwear thing is big. I've been married for over 25 years and have two fairly young children and totally fit all the expectations of a professional person so I'm definitely careful on how much I let the shoe thing be overly visible.   Fortuntately I get along quite well with my daily wear of women's cowboy boots which aren't even feminine looking and my women's sneakers, doc martens, danskos, etc. which all go great with my western cut jeans.  But oh yeah, if I could stomp right out there and wear what I really wanted, there would definitely be those special times when I'd be in some very serious heels.  I love the feel of how a really high heel feels although admittedly I'm not too interested in walking long distances in them. 

My wife hasn't really been that much of a heel wearer, but she does love boots and that fits the bill quite well. She had a tragic injury last year (compound ankle fracture) so you can only imagine how that threatens her heel wearing ability.  Several doctors recommended fusing the joint and when I realized that she'd be limited to flat shoes, or worse yet, modified orthopedic shoes and probably couldn't ever even get boots on, not to mention having a permanent limp, I literally blew a fuse.  It was absolutely sickening to even think about it.  However, that particular procedure comes with far too many other problems besides the footwear limitations and we dismissed it entirely as it is an outdated procedure that is ultimately very hard on the rest of the body. Fortunately we sought out a completely different type of treatment and she seems to be on the mend now after five surgeries.  Now, I'm sure I'd have had plenty of concern if not having the "heel gene", but there have been some hugely stressful months in getting her through all of this. However, I've reminded her that the special attention I've always given her feet has probably in this case saved her from being permently disabled by having a fusion.

The boots he chose weren't particularly girly and that is true of virtually all of the current style offerings from Ariat, Durango, Justin, Corral, etc.  However, I know that he was planning on doing bronc riding in them with the tops exposed.  Having done broncs myself in the past and still very much connected to the rodeo/cowboy environment, I will say that there is a degree of flamboyant tastes in footwear found in quite a few cowboys.  As for true high heels, probably not going to ever see anything public, but of course I suspect that are far more guys out there who like them than we'll ever know.  As for our weather  50 F. today,  -15F by Sunday night.... ouch.

This evening I stopped by a large farm/ranch supply store with the primary intention of buying horse feed, but I usually always take a pass through the footwear section.  Anyway, to my surprise here was a young man and his wife in the cowgirl boots section and he was the one trying on the boots.  So I wandered in and said, "wow, you've got small feet just like me!".  Actually I was jealous as his feet were even smaller than mine, at a very enviable women's size 8.  We compared notes, and had both experienced the problems with "men's" styles being so darned wide and falling apart because of the excess material to cover foot mass that we don't possess.  We had some shared fun trying on different styles and he ultimately went home with a cool pair that sported gold metallic tops with a few studs and I went home with horse feed as originally intended but happy for the chance meet-up with another guy who wear's "girls boots".

For me it is both fetish and practical everyday wear.  Over the last fifteen years I've almost completely ceased buying any kind of shoe or boot that is a "men's" style.  From the practical standpoint it is for better fit, my feet are small and rather narrow and women's shoes fit much better.  However, there is a deep satisfaction that simply comes from wearing women's styles even though most of my closet and certainly what I wear on a daily basis are very unisex looking.  But then there is the true fetish part where it is definitely exciting to wear truly serious, if not radical heels for the challenge and thrill of it.  But to explain how this has all come to be or what factors in my upbringing may have had an effect is simply without answers.

As for women wearing heels, I like it, but many traditional heel styles actually do very little for me and are sometimes a turnoff.  On the other hand a sweet lady wearing cowboy boots will catch my eye every time, but that comes partly from a huge love of horses and the western lifestyle and everything that goes with that.  I certainly love to see my wife wear heels, however, this ability has been seriously threatened at least for awhile following a severe ankle fracture last year.... fortunately she can wear her cowboy boots and that is good.

Me too.

Picked up a couple new pairs of Jeffrey Campbell platforms recently.  Fortunately I have a small enough size to buy about anything on the market (10 womens).  Anyway, I have been wanting some Jeffrey Campbells for awhile now as I'm a fan of "chunky, funky" styles more so than traditional heels.  Picked up a pair of Lula boots and Franz boots.  The Lulas are a bit over the top for me to wear them out, but the Franz boots will probably get some public wear.  In general I always wear women's cowboy boots (which are very unisex and don't draw any attention). However, that is partly due to better fit, but also more style choices.  I've posted pics of the new JC's in my gallery.

I have a pair of Skechers +3 and while I truly wish they were at least 1" higher, they are easy to wear and totally stealth.

I live five hours north, get to Denver several times a year.  I'm pretty much a full time cowboy boot wearer, but do like the fun and challenge of wearing some serious heels on occasion and enjoy a lot of different styles and heights.

I have purchased three pairs from them.  The first were 5" heel models in size 8.5 which were much too large for my little feet.  I had a custom pair with 4" heels that were OK, although one boot fit too tight,  I have a pair of 4" heel cowboy mules that are fine.  I sold the ones that didn't fit right.  Overall pretty good, especially for the price.  I plan to order more in the future.

That is indeed humorous,  being rather averse to "rules" (footwear especially) it would be rather humorous to see the reaction in Berkshire/South Oxfordshire to my preferred method of riding...lol.  But perhaps when the realization that I'm doing gymnastics on the back of a horse was fully realized, there may be indeed a bit of respect for it after all.

HEELS2U,  I totally know what you mean about English riders being snobs. Western riders are generally much more easy going and likeable and then there are us trick riders who are just pure fun,  we're so crazy, how could we not be fun to be around..lol. We like to "break the rules" when it comes to riding and of course I like that concept since it applies to my attitude about what I like to wear on my feet too. 

I would truly enjoy a pair too,  but as realistic as possible.  As for my horses, I don't know that they would think of it.

I had an awesome experience this week.  I have several sideline jobs in the evenings and weekends one of which is tuning pianos.  Anyway,  this week I was tuning a piano for a young family and through discussing my wife's serious ankle injury (very serious high heels threatening injury of course).  Somehow my conversations with the lady of the house eventually led into fashion and shoes and she explained her total addiction to heels and upon leaving showed me some very cool and seriously tall heels that she wears all the time to work.  I told her how one of the first gifts I ever gave my wife were some tall wooden sandals and that I am a footwear addict myself.  She told me about how impressed she was with a male bank manager she knew a few years back who obviously had a serious footwear addiction and totally "rocked" in his shoe choices and how much she appreciated that.  Although I didn't get overly detailed about describing my own collection,  I could tell, this lady is totally open minded and appreciative of guys who aren't afraid to "cross the lines" and wear whatever they want on their feet.  It was just a refreshing and encouraging experience to meet someone like this in a small Midwestern town.  I left there thinking "how cool is this".

I definitely love the way they make my already rather small feet look downright miniscule.

I like the look and the feel and have liked them for almost as long as I can remember. Thank my lucky stars for having small, rather narrow feet that enables me to fit into most any women's style I want. But why I like them so much is beyond me. First off, I really like women and about the first thing I notice is their shoes. Sadly, most women have about the same amount of style savvy as the majority of guys, but every so often I see someone who totally rocks and it's just refreshing to see that. Virtually all my shoes and boots are women's styles, certainly part of it is that they fit my little feet better, but I also like the trim, lean, look that usually comes with it, even if it is a sneaker style or very unisex cowboy boot which is what I usually wear. Guys shoes and boots are just too wide and too "big" looking and don't have a pleasing geometric balance like women's styles usually do. There is also a little bit of a brag factor, that given my good balance and flexibility, I can walk around in heels with little problem that intimidate most women. That's the fun part.