odbrenda Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Hello, I hope I'm in the good topic... I'm a student in Engineering and I'm working on a project about manufacturing high heels at the moment. In order to carry through this assignment, I would like to know some stuff like: 1) Of what are actually made high heels? I'm particularly in 2 types of high heels... a) Classic wear high heel boots: Stiletto heels: I think that stiletto heels are made of a metal rod surrounded by polyamide. But I know nothing about the heel from a classical wear boot... 2) Do you have an idea of the manufacturing of these heels? 3) Do you know where I could find data about the number of stilleto heels made a year? The price of the heel? All these economic data... If you have any tip, any information that could help me, please, feel free to tell me! Thank you very much for your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Coincidence, I too am an Engineer (what field?) Regarding your questions: 1a-quite probably the same plastic stilettos are made of, covered by a decorative polymeric sheet. 1b-you're right, metal inside and polyamide outside (in the photo). But you could also glue, on top of this, the same material the rest of the shoe is made of (swede, leather) to obtain a matching appearance. 2-for the stilettos in the pic I suppose injection molding, as well for the wear boots. Check this out too, http://giuseppezanottioutlets.com/2011/01/05/the-manufacturing-process-of-handmade-high-heels/ 3-Nope, sorry. Can you see the real me, preacher? Can you see the real me, doctor? Can you see the real me, mother? Can you see the real me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Shoe Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Yes. You normally have a hollow aluminium tub surrounded by plastic. It is a thermally unstable plastic so that when the nailing machine shoots the eclipse nails in at high speed (some are supersonic) the friction causes a localised melting of the plastic which reforms around the ridges of the nails (they look like screws close up). The tube does not go all the way to the top of the heel because it could cause the heel to split or the tube to push through into the heel of the wearer. It's a tube so that the "top piece", that is to say the heel tip has something to fit into. Really skinny heels may have a solid steel rod in lieu of a tube, the bottom of which forms the top piece. Chunkier heels are blow-molded or injection molded and are often chambered to save materials and to make them lighter. Often the stack leather effect is molded into the heel and the whole thing sprayed. Alternatively, it will have a foil coating applied. Graduate footwear designer able to advise and assist on modification and shoe making projects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevey2 Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 Hi I cant help feeling a real student engineer would have bought a couple of cheap pairs of shoes off ebay or a local carboot sale and taken the things to pieces to find out how they are made that way you would find out all the construction aspects for yourself you could have tested and analysed the components used Thats what i would have done its called using ones initiative and finding out by experiance trial and error Theres nothing better than doing and seeing to learn about things go out there and learn dont just rely on others to tell you what you want HOW do you know what they are telling you is correct? good luck with your course Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 Hi I cant help feeling a real student engineer would have bought a couple of cheap pairs of shoes off ebay or a local carboot sale and taken the things to pieces to find out how they are made that way you would find out all the construction aspects for yourself you could have tested and analysed the components used Thats what i would have done its called using ones initiative and finding out by experiance trial and error Theres nothing better than doing and seeing to learn about things go out there and learn dont just rely on others to tell you what you want HOW do you know what they are telling you is correct? good luck with your course Sure, who doesn't have an ftir spectrometer to find out the composition of the plastic parts? And let's add a quantometer for the screw holding the heel and the sole together... No offense, you don't know what you're talking about, do you? The better (and easiest) thing would be asking directly to a shoe manufacturer... Can you see the real me, preacher? Can you see the real me, doctor? Can you see the real me, mother? Can you see the real me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odbrenda Posted February 21, 2011 Author Share Posted February 21, 2011 Sure, who doesn't have an ftir spectrometer to find out the composition of the plastic parts? And let's add a quantometer for the screw holding the heel and the sole together... No offense, you don't know what you're talking about, do you? The better (and easiest) thing would be asking directly to a shoe manufacturer... Hello, Thanks for your anwers. Of course, taking appart a few shoes and analyze them would have been the best, but we don't have labs and materials available for whatever we want! Asking a manufacturer would actually be smarter, for sure, but who and where? We are exchange students in Sweden, so we don't know who to contact... Do you have an idea of a manufacturer from anywhere in the world who would be pleased to help us by e-mail? Once more, googling shoes manufacturer is easy but it's very difficult to find an e-mail address of someone who could help us... Most of the time, these informations are pretty confidential so why would they answer random students sending them e-mail? Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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