People Struggling In Heels

[new_look]

I find it hard to imagine that some people you see can have legs that are so 'unflexible' if you like. Many a time i see women round town hobbling along in like a 2 inch heel as if they were fetish 6 inch heels. Been a man and not 'expected' to be as experienced in heel wearing as women who do it everyday, its a nice feeling in a way to know that i can wear a 4.5 in heel, possibly a bit more without any probs.

[Keli]

It's funny, my wife and I talk to her girlfriends, and when we go out to dinner or a non TG function, they complain about their 2-3" KILLER heels, and the trouble they have wearing them. She will come home and laugh that I can wear higher heels, for longer periods, and handle them better than her girlfriends.

[Heelfan]

Yes, I agree with you both. It's very common (and very sad) to hear so many women regarding utterly meek 2" to 3" heels as something incredibly daring and nigh on impossible to walk in. Whenever I see a girl in a shoe-shop timidly reach for some pathetically low, broad blade-heels as if it were the epitome of boldness, it is all I can do to stop myself going over and saying "For goodness say stop messing about and go for something serious between four and six inches!". Mind you, if their legs and ankles ARE genuinely inflexible, and they are struggling to walk in 2" to 3" heels, I find that quite sexy - the fact that they press on with them on various occasions despite not being cut out for it. Sometimes their knees are thrust right forwards, sometimes they take tiny little tentative steps, and sometimes their stiletto heels tilt inwards or outwards as their ankles cannot keep them upright. (I do secretly wonder how they'd get on in REALLY high heels!). Anyway, well done Daz! I'm pleased you are doing so well with your own heeling! Are you still on track for one or both of the autumn Heel-Meets (see 'Real Life Meetings and Fun Shopping")? Cheerfully yours, Heelfan.

[Yamyam]

I know what you mean about some women. I once had an interesting experience in a shop where two women waved at the heels on show and said "Who wears these? I'd never be able to move in those!" I wasn't quite brave enough to say 'Me!' They were nice 3" courts, and fitted me well in a UK8, but I was a little stuck for time, so I didn't get them.

[Laurieheels]

When other women say such things, those are the times I susually do something that shows my great Goddess power of wearing heels. Like standing on one stiletto heel for several minutes, balancing and grinning, being quite evil in how I can do things with ease that they fear to do at half the heel height. Got it? Flaunt it. It's no fun, otherwise!

[Firefox]

Men and women's legs are anatomically the same in the skeleto muscular department although womens legs have a thicker layer of fat near the surface which usually makes them look smoother and nicer to look at. So when it comes to walking in heels they should be equal. But women are usually much better since they practiced over a period of time in their teens and before. The women who never bothered are just as inept as men though. Men who did learn are just as good as women. So it depends on your heel wearing history.

[Laurieheels]

What Fox is saying is simple. "PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!" If you've learned to wear them over time, regardless of the start age, you'll be good in heels, regardless of whatever. Training. it works for athletes, right? Why not for heel wearers?

[Firefox]

OK then. Three words summed up my usual waffle I don't think you you need that much practice to walk well. A few hours here and there. But endurance or 4 inch plus is different. Let's face it, if you are finisihed after half a mile walking, stick to something more practical for you.

[new_look]

i hate to blow my own trumpet, but i seem to always have been able to cope with a decent heel size without any obvious outdoor continuous experiences like teenage girls who seem to live in heels (unfair). Ive mucked about with heels since i was small, i'e my mothers and have quietly owned a few pairs, although i never went through the door. But for example i was at sutton on sea with my gf (Jade) and we walked along the quiet sea front path, for a couple of miles, then back in my 4.5 inch boots, and it didnt seem to bother me at all. I know some people might find that hard to believe but it is true.

[Ionic]

I've seen plenty of 4" to 4.5" shoes/boots being sold on UK eBay declared 'too high' by the seller but I saw one this week declaring a 2.5" heel was too high for her. It wasn't even a wobbly stiletto. For myself I notice a sudden transition between 3.5" and 4" and while I can stand and stagger in a lot higher, for pounding the streets I run in trouble at about 4". The problem seems to be a compression shock with each step in the tendon behind the heel. It looks like I will need to spend time in 3" to 3.5" for now and hope some adjustment occurs. /I

[AZShoeNut]

I wonder if endurance in heels has anything to do with weight. In high school I had heels ranging in height from 1-inch through 5-inch. Back then I could go five hours standing on a 4-inch heel and the ball of my feet would not hurt at all. I weighed 180 pounds at that time. When I quit smoking my weight shot up to 230 but I am now down to about 205. I now cannot seem to go more than an hour in 4-inch heels without some pain developing where my large toe connects to the foot. It has become quite a discomfort and I cannot say that I particularly care for it. AZShoeNut

[Dexter23]

Don’t forget that one shoe doesn’t walk like the other. I have had shoes with 1”that where harder to walk in than my 4” ones.

[Firefox]

It could be one of those neuroma things maybe? Try losing another 25 pounds and see if it helps.

[new_look]

could explain it for me with the weight. im only 10st so not so heavy footed

[Bubba136]

How much is 1 stone = in pounds (Lbs)?

[Heelfan]

Hi Bubba! Our old British weights and measures and monetary system was full of anomalies and and crazy units. Believe it or not ....... 16 Ounces = 1 Pound 14 Pounds = 1 Stone 8 Stones = 1 Hundredweight 20 Hundredweights = 1 Ton Ten Ton Tessy = too heavy to wear 5 1/2" stilettos! Returning to the debate about women struggling in heels, plainly some find it genuinely difficult and alien to them. However, others are just more faint-hearted and less motivated than we male heel-wearing fanatics. I and many of the rest of you guys are not put off by a bit of pinching (we'll stretch it) or excessive height (we'll master it, or even if we don't it's all part of the fun) etc., whereas for many women the odd pair of high heels is only a casual fashion accessory to be adopted or abandonned at a whim, or if the slightest problem is present in the shoes. Naturally, when referring to women en bloc, I am excluding the magnificent high-heeled lady torch-bearers on these forums, Laurie, Susan the Original, Phuongheels, Lucy, Erica, Mel, Lisa, Julietta etc. All of these are highly cherished members of our community, and would that their shining example and enthusiasm for high heels spread to the entire female population! Cheerfully yours, Heelfan

[zathrus69]

My wife belongs to the female fraternity who's motto is "the right shoes for the right occasion". Sadly the "right" occasion for anything higher than 2" is usually down to one thing - walking distance. If anything more than 100 metres is planned then the heels go back in the cupboard :-( She once berated me for making her walk round Covent Garden in 4" heels, looking for a place to sit and get a drink. Anyone who knows Covent Garden will know that it ain't exactly an olympic venue! Having said that - she doesn't look uncomfortable in them and has a nice walking style. Compared to the number of women I see tottering around as if they needed a safety net under them, she is the epitomy of grace. Still, every now and again she forgets the frat motto and wears her 4" boots while shopping. Then she wonders why I'm always ten paces behind her Zathrus

[Firefox]

I thought they had stones and lbs in the US, or is it just lbs you have. In any case I think style in heels has more to do with height to weight ratio rather than absolute weights.

[Bubba136]

The avoirdupois system of measuring weight of goods is used in the US. Ounces (Oz), Pounds (Lbs) and some in between pounds and tons. Same system, more or less, as the UK uses. Howeve,r no stone values. If 14 Lbs = 1 stone, it's confusing to try to equate in units of "10...ie, 100 lbs = 1 hundred weight or 2,000 = one ton....rather than the 2240 Lbs that would be called a ton, under stone measurements (by the way, how many pebbles does it take to make a stone? )

[J-Nation]

by the way, how many pebbles does it take to make a stone?

no pebbles, but there are 7000 grains (of what I don't know) in a pound, so that's 98000 grains in a stone

Emma

[Highluc]

Next time in the UK I'll pay attention to how the scales are graduated in a pharmacy, the butcher and in the bathroom, I'm anxious to find out how such a difficult system was made workable for everybody.

1000 grams is a kilogram, 1000 kg is a ton. EASY to weigh from pills to trucks, even our kids can do it.

[Bubba136]

Hey Highluc, you're trying to simplify a system that took centuries to complicate

[Ionic]

You really mean 1000kgs is a tonne ~ a metric tonne as distinct from an imperial ton which, at 2240lbs, is by extraordinary co-incidence only 1%-2% more than the metric tonne. So in practice you can use the two interchangably as long as you are not paying for a delivery of thousands of tons of aggregrate...

/I

[Highluc]

You really mean 1000kgs is a tonne ~ a metric tonne as distinct from an imperial ton which, at 2240lbs, is by extraordinary co-incidence only 1%-2% more than the metric tonne. So in practice you can use the two interchangably as long as you are not paying for a delivery of thousands of tons of aggregrate.../I

Yep, I also wonder what base they used for that imperial tonne, given the fact that 2240lbs is not an obvious logical starting point. I even never heard of an imperial tonne before. Is there also something like a US tonne, as analogy to Imperial versus US gallons? And by the way how did that gallon stuff diverge after all those imigrants got into the states. Don't tell me native Indians used US gallons as a standard.

[J-Nation]

Yep, I also wonder what base they used for that imperial tonne, given the fact that 2240lbs is not an obvious logical starting point. I even never heard of an imperial tonne before. Is there also something like a US tonne, as analogy to Imperial versus US gallons? And by the way how did that gallon stuff diverge after all those imigrants got into the states. Don't tell me native Indians used US gallons as a standard.

The starting point is actually the pound multiplied up rather than the ton divided......

"Since at least 1400 a standard weight unit in Britain has been the hundredweight, which is equal to 112

avoirdupois pounds rather than 100. There were very good reasons for the odd size of this "hundred":

112 pounds made the hundredweight equivalent for most purposes with competing units of other

countries, especially the German zentner and the French quintal. Furthermore, 112 is a multiple of 16,

so the British hundredweight can be divided conveniently into 4 quarters of 28 pounds, 8 stone of 14

pounds, or 16 cloves of 7 pounds each. The ton, originally a unit of wine measure, was defined to

equal 20 hundredweight or 2240 pounds."

from http://www.munic.state.ct.us/BURLINGTON/english_customary_weights_and_measures.pdf if you're interested.

Emma

[Heelfan]

ANWAY, to get back to "Struggling in High Heels" .............. Cheerfully yours, Heelfan

[Highluc]

Thank you Emma. Sorry for disgressing but talking only about heels would get anybody nuts after a short while. But I agree it's time to go back to the original topic after this interesting historical intermezzo. It's just that after 35 years in heels I can't talk anymore about struggling in heels, they just feel so natural to me.

[jemanda]

Well, if its any consolation, even the experts have problems. I found this pic in tonites local paper.. would like to see the rest of the sequence in slooooow mo

The caption read "Roll model: A fashion model loses her footing - and her poise - on the catwalk during the Sportmax Spring/Summer 2004 fashion collection in Milan. Photo: AP"

[Laurieheels]

The answer is simple - she's wearing platforms. All of that extra weight on her feet caused her some troubles.

[Highluc]

The totaly artificial way they are supposed to walk down that catwalk also might have it's share of the problems they encounter, plus usually there is only one pair of prototype shoe that is supposed to fit any standard model feet.