Fog

Here's some more pics of my Dune Wedges - this time worn with leather trousers I got at H&M for £4.99 Bargain! and corset.

Again hope you like them.

These boots are some of my favourites, worn under trousers they blend in very well and can go anywhere. Over trousers they stand out more - especialy jeans.

Hi TB2 - I've run out of days off until next year - I could do lunch, but it would be a very quick affair. Alternatively if some of the guys are spending the afternoon I could meet for drinks after work.

schottische

I voted for what ever I like, whenever I like - that was the nearest. I do wear whatever I like - fully exposed stiletto boots and shorts is a favourite, but I do it occasionally. It is really a two part question - so hard to do in a poll. The first element is what do you wear the second is when and where do you wear it. You might get people who wear stilettos inside every day, but block heels out rarely. I'm being pedantic I know, but it's what I do for a living.

Well, although I'm in Germany, my background began with statistics. It progressed to engineering, and computer networking security.

I think the best approach would be to randomly select shoe shops that routinely have larger sizes available (a shoe shop that tops off at size 10 US (8 UK) would not have many male clientelle at all, and would skew the results).

Avoiding certain shoe shops is the surest way to skew the sample. What you say would sound plausible to anyone outside the market research industry, and, if you want to put forward a case for a high penetration of male purchasers of high heeled shoes that's the way to do it.

This is my last post for nearly three weeks but I'm sure this discussion can wait.

Dawn, It's good that you're safe and well, but what a shame about the car. Secondly, Don't send out a search party - I'm off on my holidays in my tank (Volvo 240 estate). Back mid October.

In fact, during the last two years I've been conducting an informal survey of shoe salespeople when I go to try on and/or buy heels. It goes something like this:

1. Are you surprised to see a man buying a pair of high-heeled shoes/boots? Answer more than 95% is "no" or "not at all." About 3% of the time it's "a little," and just once did I receive a "yes."

2. What percentage of your sales goes to men who're buying heels? Answers range from around 10% to "about half" from one Payless manager who's store is in the heart of a progressive city that's quite open to personal alternatives. The average is around 20%, which is 1 in 5, and much higher than I would have imagined. The Payless manager even mentioned that part of the initial training involves teaching the sales clerks about how men buy heels, too, how to help them without drawing attention to them, and other techniques to avoid scaring them off.

In the interests of brevity I've chopped off points 3 ff -

The results are interesting and surprising. I'm tempted to do a survey of Oxford St. Obviously I'd have to sample every Nth shop and categorise them into main stream - low, mid, upper - and there are a few alternative shops at the TCR end. That would give us an idea of the guesses of Oxfor St Shoe sales staf as to the demographics of their ladies shoe customer base. To get a uk wide picture would be complicated, but surveys of one or two other towns would give an interesting comparison.

So here's the question - is there anyone with a market research background who doesn't live in London who'd be up for it?

"All power to him" - I absolutely agree with that statement.

Unfortunately, in the eyes of the man (& woman) in the street, this incident just helps to reinforce two age-old misconceptions:-

- Gay men like to wear women's clothes

- if you wear womens clothes, you are gay

Speaking as a 'heterosexual heeler', I would love to one day see the end of that sort of knee-jerk stereotyping. And the sooner the better, as I am running out of places to hide my heels!

I read the report in the metro and the articles I found were from the Sun and the Daily Mail - what can you expect from those organs? I included both as they had different pictures. But why do you have to hide your heels? If you know you're not gay does it matter what anyone else thinks? People will judge you on you, everything about you, your clothes -stylish or not, your confidence or your lack of it and the way you present yourself.

And I thought I was the only one that noticed that.

Hang on a minute

I havent yet had the courage to wear any of my heels outside, but I hope someday that I will.

You're one of those 4,000 people, yet you haven't had the courage of your convictions to wear heels out of doors. There are far more men who'd like to wear heels than actually do - granted. There are numerous occasional wearers on the board (like me) once a week if I'm feeling like it, but only a handful of regular out and out wearers - please contradict me if I'm wrong. Therefore the chance of seeing a man in heels is infinitessimal.

4000 people finding their way to, and registering, on a small private board that doesnt advertise and operates on the extreme fringe of current societal norms isnt a bad accomplishment IMO. We may not be mainstream, but we certainly arent alone.

Agreed, but there are a hell of a lot more blokes who'd like to do it than actually do. Don't you ever notice that look of jealousy from other men - ok there's outright disbelief and contempt as well, but you can tell some blokes just wish they had the balls to do what you do.

I noticed this in the metro this morning.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=406773&in_page_id=1770

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006340460,00.html

All power to him I say.

When I did the audition there were a few in the audience who didn’t know what to make of me.

“But then others said, ‘If you’ve got the balls to do it, go for it’.”

He added: “There will be a few bigots who might not approve, but I’m hoping to show I’ve enough confidence to carry it off.

He certainly looks like he's got the balls and the confidence to pull it off. I wish I'd known what I wanted and been brave enough to go for it at fifteen. Never mind, it's never too late.

I echo what Xa and Nigel have said. I don't know how many people you've pm'd, I didn't answer the one you sent to me, for obvious reasons. If they're not obvious to you - they are certainly obvious to older and wiser people on the board.

Hey Shaq91, Quit worrying about what the sales clerk thinks. If I bought a King Kong outfit for Halloween, would that make me King Kong? Of course not. And the same thing goes for Darth Vader or Superman costumes - much to my chagrin, it just ain't so! The same thing also goes for high heels. Besides, if the clerk gives you any shine, you can always tell 'em your money is paying for shoes, not nose.

You won't get any better common sense than that.

You'd be amazed at what you can get away with these days!

But you can only 'get away with' things that you yourself can 'get away with' in your own mind. Put those sandals on and feel great about the look and you can go anywhere; but, if you put them on, give yourself a good hard look in the mirror and there's doubt in your mind, you can't.

Kneehighs, Good stories - you are such an old smoothie and cute You've got to admit the heels are just one element in the package and if everything else wasn't right - outfit and personality it just wouldn't work.

..... Although Ive never seen another guy wearing heels before, the sheer quantity of members on this board is a testament to the size of our movement........

I don't think the arithmetic stacks up somehow. There are around 4000 members on this board half of them haven't posted a thing. Divide 4000 into roughly half the population of the world - or even half the population of America and Europe - you're getting pretty small numbers.

I don't want to spoil things, but let's not get carried away.

Funny one that - IMHO often means IMO!

r1g0r (wearing my "slut boots" to work tomorrow!)

So what do you do at work?

Dawn's hit the nail on the head. How many people have ever seen a man wearing thigh boots? The first time you see something you've never seen before which you weren't expecting it's a surprise. They've all got used to you, the shock factor has gone.

The problem is that when car manufacturers talk about safety, it's only the safety of the driver and passengers they consider. The same goes for transport planners until recently.

Agreed, nice boots. What colour did you go for? What do you intend to wear with them? And please tell us about your outings in them.

There's quite an interesting essay behind the pictures. It's special and often richly decorated examples of items get preserved for the future. Thinking about today, the shoes that people wear out, get worn out. There will be proportionately more of the shoes that people don't wear surviving. I wonder how many extreme heels will be around in five hundred years and what will historians make of them? And will college kids write essays about them?

My goodness! I've never seen such pleading in my life. I can see wanting to show off videos on YouTube, but pleading like your life depends on it? As they say.....post it, and they will come eventually. It'll happen on its own.

Almost everyone on this board tends to follow thumper's advice. I know he was a cartoon rabbit.

The penny's just dropped

http://www.hhplace.org/hhboard/viewtopic.php?p=116883#116883

Are those boots in the video your mum's which you've broken? If I were your mum I wouldn't be very happy with you! My daughter used to steal my Dr Martens work boots and wear them to school - after I said NO. I really didn't know what there was about NO that she couldn't understand.