Why men's shoes are boring

[Steve63130]

I subscribe to an industry journal called Footwear News, which used to be a printed and mailed newsletter and is now online. The recent issue is here.

Take a look through it. While the shoe industry is 90% about women's shoes and maybe 5% men's and 5% children's (my guess based on what I see in the mag), this issue focuses on men's shoes. The styles they show are mostly boring, even though they're touted as novel. The articles on pages 16-19 prove that designers and customers can't think outside their narrow box. The women's shoes on page 20, by contrast, are much more interesting.

I've been reading this mag for 4-5 years now, in hope of seeing a glimmer of light that men's styles might be changing, and that heel heights might go up. Nada, I'm sorry to say.

Steve

[PetiteMale]

Men's shoes are horrible. I wouldn't say that in front of most men because they'd be really upsent. But for me, most men's shoes are "boring" (something MEN seem to like.) Fortunately for me, I can wear women's small sizes (it use to be size 7 in women's for me; now it's a woman's size 7 1/2 for me.) I think women have the best shoes, now if only the women can find that outside SOMEDAY!

[radiodave]

Men's shoes ARE boring. Interesting article though, thanks Steve. Petitemale: Size 7.5? Wow! I think there are women who would be envious having that size. I'll bet you don't have trouble finding ones that fit. I thought I was fortunate to usually take a 9!

[jetheelsfan]

Men's variables:

Color - Black, Brown. Tan, White.

Style - Loafer, Oxford, Boot, Athletic, Sandel.

Material - Plastics, Fabric, Leather, Suade.

Finish - Smooth, Shiny

Heels - Flat, Shape

Women' Variables:

Color - The rainbow, Metalics, Clear

Styles - Loafer, Oxford, Boot, Athletic, Sandel, Pump, Closed Toe, Open Toe, Slings, Number of straps, Directions of Straps, Location of straps, Ornaments, Bows, Flowers.

Material - Fabric, Leather, Suade, Plastic, .

Finish - Smooth, Shiny, Matte, Pearlized. Crinkled, Textured

Heels - Flat, Height, Shape, Matetial. Size

It is pure numbers of choices.

[PetiteMale]

Petitemale: Size 7.5? Wow! I think there are women who would be envious having that size. I'll bet you don't have trouble finding ones that fit. I thought I was fortunate to usually take a 9!

Thanks! But wearing a 7.5 is great for a woman's shoe (but honestly I USE to wear a size 7 so I guess my feet have gotten bigger!) On the other hand when I try to get a man's shoe, I look for a man's in a size 6C (and those are REALLY hard to find.)

All this is why I LOVE women's shoes!

[Heelster]

Interesting article - - Nothing in the mens line up that I would ever consider.

[ShockQueen]

Lack of style Lack of color Lack of flair Shall I go on? They are just dull, boring, and.......ugh! I'll stick with my nice heels, wedges, ballet flats, and other assortments.

[iggy_ze]

Such a shame there is no email address for the editor. I guess he would be bombarded by coments from members of this forum. Ian G

[Dr. Shoe]

Men's shoes atr boring because of the way men dhop. When buying clothes, it is a purely mechanical process. In fact it is a fact that 82% of men's clothes are bought by women for their husbands, boyfriends, sons or brothers. Often the men are present but not always.

In the comparatively unlikely even that men do buy, they go to the shop with a firm idea of what they're looking for. "I need a pair of shoes for work," they say and so go into the first shop they come across, select a pair of shoes that ticks all the boxes, pay for them then leave. Most men do not buy clothes by emotion like women do.

It all goes back to when we lived in caves. Women were the gatherers and would spend all day selecting the right berries based on ripeness and whether they were edible. Men would go out, find the nearest antelope and lob a spear at it.

[Sumiko]

It's quite easy to understand there are like 3 basic designs for guy shoes, some might add or remove one or two things, but overall the 3 basic designs remain however women have those 3 AND a freakish ton of other basic designs. There are just more variety. And the sad thing is, there is only one, just one, way to fix that so men start to want other designs too(not really something as feminim as high heels, but just other colors styles etc.) that is, if some popular people start to wear them. With popular people i don't mean movie stars while walking on the red carpet. I mean like IN the movie, IN music videos(like rappers), IN sitcoms. You have to make it mainstream to make it work. I'm a comic artist and i will try to do that once i'm popular enough, but of course that alone might not be enough.

[ilovetights]

Men's shoes atr boring because of the way men dhop. When buying clothes, it is a purely mechanical process. In fact it is a fact that 82% of men's clothes are bought by women for their husbands, boyfriends, sons or brothers. Often the men are present but not always.

In the comparatively unlikely even that men do buy, they go to the shop with a firm idea of what they're looking for. "I need a pair of shoes for work," they say and so go into the first shop they come across, select a pair of shoes that ticks all the boxes, pay for them then leave. Most men do not buy clothes by emotion like women do.

It all goes back to when we lived in caves. Women were the gatherers and would spend all day selecting the right berries based on ripeness and whether they were edible. Men would go out, find the nearest antelope and lob a spear at it.

What is your source/proof for this stat??

This is not an attack on your post. It's just that with statistics, anyone could pick a number between (and including) 0-100 and apply it to a statement and suddenly we have a "fact". Whether it is accurate or true is anyone's guess. Love the last paragraph though!

I agree though. Even the men's shoes that look fantastic are boring (for example sharp black business shoes (usually pointed!)).

I've always wore sneakers (or trainers or runners or whatever you want to call them). I've been looking for 'casual' men's shoes for a year or so now and have not found anything I liked.

[skirtedvik]

Men's fashion is boring generally speaking,not just shoes.That is how men are being brought up - you stray from masculine looks and that turns you being not normal,gay and so on.While the other sex can wear all male apparel without any bad reactions!

[Dr. Shoe]

What is your source/proof for this stat??

This is not an attack on your post. It's just that with statistics, anyone could pick a number between (and including) 0-100 and apply it to a statement and suddenly we have a "fact". Whether it is accurate or true is anyone's guess. Love the last paragraph though!

I agree though. Even the men's shoes that look fantastic are boring (for example sharp black business shoes (usually pointed!)).

I've always wore sneakers (or trainers or runners or whatever you want to call them). I've been looking for 'casual' men's shoes for a year or so now and have not found anything I liked.

Read Alan Pease's Why Men Never Listen and Women Can't Read Maps it's his theories not mine but something I can relate to.

[Guest]

now if they were more like these, boots in general would look better on all men (in my opinion that is)

[wolf]

Most men do not buy clothes by emotion like women do.

I think this is the key.

We men are not used to let us be carried away by emotions

[The Shark]

Yes, men's shoes are totally boring! There's only so much you can do with basic flat shoes. That's why we only have a couple pairs of shoes, at the most. With men's shoes, it's all about function and utility - whereas with women's shoes, it's about style and looks. Women, on the other hand, have an unbelieveable variety when it comes to choices in clothing and shoes. I just started wearing heels this year and have only one pair - but now I find myself wanting so many other types of heels. Now I know why women love their shoes!

[roniheels]

There were a couple of women that I dated and told of my enjoyment of wearing high heels. Both women told me that it was wrong for me to wear high heels and asked me why I enjoyed them. I told both of them that I thought high heels were pretty shoes, men's shoes were not pretty and they were boring, and I felt good and pretty wearing high heels. Both women told me that men aren't supposed to look pretty and men's shoes are for men and women's shoes are for women. Needless to say, I don't date either one of those women any more.

[Guest]

well roniheels, offhand I'd say that those 2 "Women" weren't worth your time of day since they both showed you where THEY came from (like my dad's Mom/grandma to me would always tell me) "well, consider the source" they sure as hell don't/didn't "get it" as far as what you were trying to show them with that kind of stupid responce!!!

[Histiletto]

Since men as a whole haven't stood up for their right to choose their personal attire, society took this right away. It wasn't done all at once. It happened a little bit at a time while society made rules to support its standards that created the stereotypes we have today. Laces, ruffles, and form fitting attire use to be part of men's selections. Then society made the determination that men couldn't use anything women wore. The idea of effeminacy was more down played with intentions to eliminate it completely from male options. Men generally let this change go, unchallenged, because of the social ideals of manhood. Heels weren't thought of as social luxuries until about the 18th century, when men wanted to appear taller than their physical stature. When women began wearing heels, they shared the highlights and status of the men they were with. One of the origins of high heels was influenced by horse riding warriors in the armies of the 13th century Mongolian conqueror, Genghis Khan. The heels helped keep their footwear in the stirrups and they were sharpened spike heels to be used as weapons against foes.

[UpBy5]

Histiletto, If memory serves, one or more of the later French kings, Louis the something-ths, brought men's heels into general acceptance at the time. Seems like one of them, like Napoleon, was vertically challanged in a big way. My history's weak on the beginning & end times. Every painting I've seen of the "Founding Fathers" and other grandees of the era are universally wearing knee-breeches, knee-highs (white) and slip-on, silver-buckle pumps with higher-than-today's heels. Geo. Washington & Ben Franklin stand out in my mind.

[ilovetights]

Histiletto,

If memory serves, one or more of the later French kings, Louis the something-ths, brought men's heels into general acceptance at the time. Seems like one of them, like Napoleon, was vertically challanged in a big way. My history's weak on the beginning & end times. Every painting I've seen of the "Founding Fathers" and other grandees of the era are universally wearing knee-breeches, knee-highs (white) and slip-on, silver-buckle pumps with higher-than-today's heels. Geo. Washington & Ben Franklin stand out in my mind.

So it would take a world leader to make high heels for men to be accepted..... and probably some 'vertically challenged' celebrities to make them "cool".

Then men's shoes would be less (or not) boring!

[Charlie]

There were a couple of women that I dated and told of my enjoyment of wearing high heels. Both women told me that it was wrong for me to wear high heels and asked me why I enjoyed them. I told both of them that I thought high heels were pretty shoes, men's shoes were not pretty and they were boring, and I felt good and pretty wearing high heels. Both women told me that men aren't supposed to look pretty and men's shoes are for men and women's shoes are for women. Needless to say, I don't date either one of those women any more.

They weren't by any chance wearing pants when they told you all this were they? LOL

Charlie

[Charlie]

So it would take a world leader to make high heels for men to be accepted..... and probably some 'vertically challenged' celebrities to make them "cool".

Then men's shoes would be less (or not) boring!

It's true that males in the French aristocracy wore high heels but then the French revolution came and the extra height was negated by the lopping off of their heads. If only the peasants really had cake to eat.. chuckle..

Charlie

[dww]

Yes I agree mens shoes are boring.

[Puffer]

I have to agree that, overall, there is relatively little variety in men's shoes - but that is not quite the same as saying that all men's shoes are boring. Obviously, it is a question of personal taste and we should all like to have more exciting, daring, fancy, 'prettier' shoes to buy and wear openly - regardless of the heel style or height.

I rarely wear lace-up shoes/boots/trainers (outside a purely functional/safety context) and almost always buy slip-on shoes or zip/elastic-sided ankle boots. There is quite a variety in these styles and they are certainly more exciting than an ugly Oxford, Derby or brogue lace-up clodhopper. Cuban heels (usually around 2") are sometimes found on both styles, particularly boots.

Slip-ons can be in several styles (e.g. moccasin, loafer or more formal) with metal or leather snaffles, cross-straps or ties, textured panels, pointed or more rounded toes and a fair variety of colours (including white, grey, burgundy, blue and patents).

Boots are generally plainer but the shaft height can vary and they may have decorative straps and pointed or chisel toes. Longer boots worn outside trousers remain elusive, except for wellies and when horse-riding etc.

Even men's sandals are getting lighter, more open and less clumsy, with several unisex styles 'borrowed' from women being worn as a matter of course with casual clothes. (But a men's dress sandal with, perhaps, a higher heel remains to be seen.)

A shoe without a proper heel is not automatically 'boring' (even if not very exciting to wear). And vice versa - there are quite a few (women's) shoes with heels that I consider boring and unflattering, e.g. Oxfords, Mary Janes, boots with big platforms, wedge bootees.

[Histiletto]

Hey Puffer, Your posting puts the answer of boring shoes into a better perspective. We each have certain taste which focuses our choices from the array of selections. All other potentials pale away, because they don't spark our interest as much, therefore boring. The insistence of society to make us wear the footwear they have chosen for us, only causes more resistence to wear them. The wing-tip oxfords are suppose to be one of the top line footwear for men. They are repulsive to me, but for many years I had to wear them anyway. Now, laced work and sports shoes really turns me off, but I wear them to satisfy social expectations and deflect the constant ridicule and demeaning attitudes I would get should I wear the footwear of my choosing all the time, publicly. I realize it make my pulic heeling hypocritical, but that's the world I have created for me in order to cope.

[SomeGuy]

Thanks! But wearing a 7.5 is great for a woman's shoe (but honestly I USE to wear a size 7 so I guess my feet have gotten bigger!) On the other hand when I try to get a man's shoe, I look for a man's in a size 6C (and those are REALLY hard to find.)

All this is why I LOVE women's shoes!

I'm not sure I'd ever bother shopping in the mens section if I had a 7.5 foot.

[Puffer]

We are of a similar mind, Histiletto. It's interesting that you have felt obliged to wear men's shoe styles that you dislike 'to satisfy social expectations' - which I assume to mean 'to conform'. You are certainly not alone - in the UK we can still see the archetypal 'city gent' whose clothes and shoes have changed little in nearly 100 years and who might well face ridicule if he departed markedly from his expected uniform. There are other examples too, at work and otherwise.

As a teenager and young adult, I was never truly rebellious or even particularly fashion conscious and largely conformed to what was expected of a schoolboy (in uniform) and then a trainee and subsequently qualified professional, working in and around London. But I never wore lace-up shoes with round toes (the Oxford - or 'beetle-crusher') or any other similarly stuffy, formal footwear, for work or otherwise. Slip-on shoes, Chelsea boots and the like were my normal footwear - with pointed toes when they were in vogue (and if they remained undetected at school!) - and they still are. Yes, I suspect that a few contemporaries and figures of authority considered my footwear to be too informal but I doubt that I lost anything as a result. I could never pluck up courage to wear 1960s cuban heeled Beatle boots (although I do now!) and I detested the clumpy 1970s platform shoes (and most of the other fashions of that era), the near-universal adoption of trainers from the 1980s and the more recent adoption of 'work boots' for supposedly smart casual wear.

I suppose I have been stuck in a time-warp for about 50 years (and I'm scarcely unique in that) but have invariably tried to put a slight edge on my otherwise fairly conservative male appearance by wearing shoes that are just a tad more exciting than those normally worn by men in formal mode, or even casually. I think the main ingredients have to be lightness (no thick soles), no very rounded toes or toecaps, a minimum of laces (if any) and a little discreet embellishment such as a buckle, snaffle or strap. Even a plain black shoe can be smartened in this way; another colour may be a bonus if the outfit calls for it. A slighter higher and narrower heel than normal is fine if the shoe or boot will take it without looking contrived. The loafer is a good example - it has been borrowed from us by the ladies and given a higher heel and it's about time we took it back in that form! Ditto the Chelsea boot.

Men's shoes are not always boring - even if their wearers may be.

[PetiteMale]

I'm not sure I'd ever bother shopping in the mens section if I had a 7.5 foot.

You're right. I stopped years ago. Years ago I purchased a pair of shoes in the "boy's division" of a shoe store. I still have them and have never gone back there since!

[Confused]

I am new to heels but personally I have always loved my shoes. Men's shoes tend to be built for substance over style and I cannot call that boring it is just functional. How it seems to be working in my head at the moment when I want to goto to a gig and go moshing I will put on my steel toe capped Caterpillars as they are indestructible, they protect my toes from fat blokes landing on them, they have a grip that stops me falling over while bouncing around on the dance floor and I feel like robocop when I wear them. If I want to go for a run I put my Nikes on they have a good grip so I can run faster, they cushion the blow of my foot hitting the ground so protecting my joints from becoming damaged and I feel like I can run 100 miles an hour when I wear them. While I was writing this I then got to my shoes I wear when I am in one of my suits. Here even after 10 minutes of thinking I have to concede the point. I bought them from clarkes shoes I don't really even know or care what the style they are. They just happened to be black, shiny and they fitted it took me less than 15 minutes to buy them, there was little to no thought. When I wear them feel nothing. This would be where heels would slot into my void (that could be misconstrued but I will leave it there for comedy value). As surly when I am suited up my shoes should make me feel powerful or at least make me feel that I am looking good which sadly they do not. But I am sure that there are people out there that feel exactly that. I guess my point is that while I do want some shoes with style I do also want some more functional footwear on occasion and I do love function.