hh&c fan

I don't think they are dead. Unless dead can answer emails... It seems they only do made-to-order now.

Apart from that, good luck with your project. As you can tell from my avatar, I'm a huge fan of these vintage styles.

They couldn't answer mine. So for me it seems they're dead. Wrote them a bunch of mails (2 different addresses, via contact form and directly) and they never wrote back.

Can't say I care for that style. Seems unnecessarily hard to walk in, not very rounded like those great vintage fetish heels. If anyone knows where I can find heels like those, let me know! Other than (Burlesque Blue)

About nowhere. I talked with some manufacturers and nobody wants to make them. La Piazza had some great vintage-like design but seems they're dead.

Burlesque Blues seem to be nice but ... the overall shape and proportions aren't exactly perfect.

For some months I'm planning to create those by myself. Take a look at the thread http://www.hhplace.org/topic/18060-going-to-create-high-heels-by-myself/

I'm planning a version with and one without plateaus. In post #50 I show the most current state of the digital model.

However I'm currently in talk with one more manufacturer. Possibly they can make them.

This really should be too simple to fuss over. The shank that I have found in factory shoes is a piece of junk but quite reproduceable. Figure the size and shape get some air hardening tool steel presumably in strip form and do all the cutting, drilling and bending. Bring up to 2000 degrees of what ever it takes and cool slowly. If oil hardening steel is used then it gets heated and plunged into oil and at just the right angle as warpage can occur at the quenching. Better yet make a mold from clay covered with suranrap and lay down your sole pattern in fiberglass then grind and apply more fiberglass and more grinding until it is right. This method can go from the inside or from the outside. Start with a mold of the foot or a mold of the outside of the shoe.

Let's see... can I heat my baking oven up to 2000°... nope unfortunately that won't help me. On the other hand it shouldn't be a problem to find a small company who can do this in that "crap quality". However the better shanks aren't just "flat" and that's something I can't do and a non-specialized company cannot do either.

However if I have some luck, even you who also love the design might be able to buy it...

Hope I'm able to tell you more soon.

Just received ballet shoes today in leather from pleaser. They are great. Should have bought leather before. Toe bax is nice and stiff.

Did you wear Pleaser's Ballet Patent boots before? Would like to know how they feel compared to real leather ones!

I'm still looking for where to get the shanks. There are some manufacturers specialized in mechanical flat springs etc. I think some of them would create fitting ones for me. However of course it would be best if they were made by someone who knows what he's doing after all. Does anyone here have connections to a custom shank manufacturer?

I like the shape. One thing I might add is that on the platforms I have with a cut back toe area, there is a tendancy to tip forward. You may want to have a bit more flat area on the sole under the ball of the foot. The stiffness of the connection between the heel and the sole/shank will be a challenge. I look forward to your sucess with this project.

Some time has passed... and now I'm back at work. I think I'm almost happy with the new shape. Attached are some screenshots of the model consisting of 4 parts - last, sole, plateau, heel. Of course I have to do some microcorrections as the real sole and leather has a certain thickness.

What do you think of the shape? Do you like the design?

Regarding foot anatomy etc - I'm sure this is not perfect, but I took lots of measurements from my favourite pair of high heels and my own feet...

And if you don't know about it by now - the last looks a bit "stretched" because it will include a hidden 2cm slant plateau.

This archive contains several images (required password attached to this post): https://rapidshare.c...1374/images.zip

password.txt

Still I am hardly able to find time for working on the heels. Currently I refine the (digital lasts) as everytime I look at them I find some other thing needing to be corrected However I think the digital lasts are almost done now. If possible I'm going to show the final shape and a first rendering of the whole shoes in a few weeks.

Already know that thread. I don't want to learn making them from the book but just gathering some more knowledge about how they are made and what important things you have to remember etc.

ok I got one more question for you high heel experts. Do you know any literature which is about (or covers) manufacture of high heels? I found some stuff spread over the web... but when it comes to quality shoe making, the resources seem to be limited to classical flat male shoes. I think I would feel safer if I had a book detailing the process of building a high heel - instead of basing it on normal shoe making and all the hints I found everywhere. So do u have any ideas?

Pleaser Screams are really bad heels. Neither pretty nor well-shaped. You cannot walk in them as in other 7" heels. I know some shops which sell 7" heels but still looking for new ones. fuss-schuhe.de elite-heels.de 6ihf.com la-piazza-highheels.com (don't know if they're still alive)

Platforms are nice but only when the plateau/heel difference is big enough. A 3" heel with "attached" 4" plateau has a height of 7" - but looks really ugly. But if it's "high heel" - 5-7" plus plateau height, it will look beautiful!

Not really, there are right now three different manufacturers making these sort of heels.

Elite-Heels and Italianheels are using the same company,

Fuss and Heels and More are using the other company

and the third is just starting.

It's great to hear of a new company instead of just seeing them die one by one! Hope to see some of their styles soon...

Please don't go with the Pleaser boots... they are so ugly I cannot say anything specific, but I think they are more or less gone. There's still one german shop selling Leatherwork shoes - laszivo.de - but it seems to be impossible to order shoes directly from Leatherworks. Really bad years for good heels industries.

Thanks bss, very useful material!

1st, have not read the whole post!! so hope that I'm not repeating anything

however read the parts where you were looking for cnc work done

there is newer and better technology available

its called ''3D printing'' do a google and a you tube search and get the shock of you life with the new manufacturing technologies, I did

you will either be able to make one off in your home, yes there are small table top machines on the market, or make molds witch can then be mass produced!!

good luck hope this helps

will post up again if I have more info

I alredy know about 3D printing. However it's very expensive and often the possible size is strongly limited.

A shank has to be as stiff as possible. It doesn't really matter what it's made from as long as it retains the shape of the shoe.

yep of course but I was hoping someone could tell me if epoxy+fibers really's better. possibly it's easier to create than to find someone who can do steel shanks. more about that later.

Hey there!

I think I finally got the right last shape. Will show some pictures soon.

One question for our experts - here's a website telling some stuff about high heel manufacturing - http://www.medianet.pl/~andrew/shoes/comfy_heels.htm

In the middle of the document there's a section about shanks. They say the best shanks aren't made out of steel but from epoxy resin reinforced with carbon or glass fibers. What do you think about that?

I think they're either from leatherworks (which are somewhere between life and death ) or from 6ihf (still alive. Unfortunately the shoes will look different for large sizes.)

Don't tell her too late. She should know you well to that time - so that you knows you're not crazy. I think it'll be a bit easier if your gf was into heels too. And then you tell her. Maybe you should split it into several parts. Before you tell her you wear high heels you should know you think they are very attractive... However if your gf hates it, either she or the heels have to go. And then, either you like her or the heels more. So after all there's nothing to worry about. Tell her carefully, and at the end you'll do what's best for you.

I see what most ppl here write. I think about it in a different way. Let's see it in a way of structuring: My normal life doesn't have anything to do with heels or fetish. And that's the way I wanna keep it. I wouldn't like to be seen wearing high heels. And believe it or not, if I wore heels in public, my friends would look at me in a different way. And I'm not sure if I liked that way. So what the heck? Hide them. Buy a lockable box where you can be sure they are safe!

So, how's it going? It's been over a week since your last post.

Already told ya I don't have too much time. Currently refining the last shape, the one I showed was just a very basic model.

Great model you made! But it seems you don't stick to the baby doll toe anymore as your model shows a bit pointier toe box.

Yep it's no rounded baby doll toe box anymore. To be exact I never planned that. I most love the extreme vintage pumps with a short but slightly pointed toe.

Just bought the first materials as I found a good deal on ebay - the interior will be silver leather...

From time to time I'll show what I'm doind/planning, but real production will begin in 2012. Taking a look at my time schedule I think they'll have to wait until the first days of march.

However before I could begin anything I have to collect all needed tools and materials; also I have to have the lasts / plateaus / heel mold be milled.

Oh and the shanks of course.

So there's enough to do until then...

Thank you shedevil, but I don't think I'll be able to sell any shoes: -> it will get as expensive as having a real shoe maker create your shoes -> it will take several times longer than made by a pro shoe maker -> I don't have any experiences about last making - my feet being very close to me can give me some orientation but that won't work for your feet -> I can only spend a hour here and there. There are too much other things to be done. So all I can do is to show you how you - or perhaps a craft knowing friend - can follow my idea and create your own dream shoes.

Yeah, how's that going BTW?

Aside from currently being sick I'm workin on shaping the last models...

well guys, after all these months it seems like no manufacturer is interested in creating sexy looking ultra high heels. So some weeks ago I decided to give myself a try on creating my own ones.

Due to several reasons I am not able to sell them/make them to order, but I'll share my experiences, ideas and sources and maybe some of you will give it a try too...

http://www.hhplace.org/shoe_repair_modifications/20900-going_create_high_heels_myself.html

It took me some time to decide which modeling/Cad application to use, but now it's decided and I created a basic model. This was just done by using blueprints. Next, I'll add anatomically correct shape to the last (currently just very basic) and then apply the measurements of my feet (well the blueprints were already done by using their measurements anyway).

For those who are interested, check the attached demo images

and these links (check attached password.txt):

https://rapidshare.com/files/2798248223/hhdemo1_img.zip - a dozen images (0.5MB)

https://rapidshare.com/files/2948263790/hhdemo1_vid.zip - video (~10MB)

Hope u have fun watching them!

P.S.: In case you're wondering why the toe box is so high: to make it possible to create such a short box, the last will not only include the foot but also a hidden angled 2cm plateau!

password.txt