Adding Height To A Heel

[RonC]

Just wondering if anyone has tried adding an extra half or three-quarters of an inch to a pair of heels?  I saw a pair that I liked, but the heels were rather low.  I was wondering of adding some to the heel would change the geometry of the shoe.

[mlroseplant]

I'm no cobbler, but I'm going to say that I don't think a radical alteration like that is going to work out very well. Just for an example, I did a little trigonometry, and in my size, US women's 9, going from a 3 inch heel to a 4 inch heel with no platform would increase the steepness of the shoe by nearly 12 degrees. Even assuming that you could figure out a way to graft a taller heel onto the shoe, the rest of the angles and curves of the shoe would be thrown way out of whack. I could be wrong, but I don't think it would be very satisfactory. For one thing, I think the leather around the sides of your toes would tend to pucker out permanently, as it does momentarily on your trailing foot every time you take a step.

Having said that, I do recall watching a YouTube video where a woman had 5 mm taken off the heels of some Louboutin Pigalles as an experiment. It evidently turned out well, and she said it made the shoes much more comfortable and wearable. But keep in mind that 5 mm, or about 3/16 of an inch is a relatively small amount, and changes the pitch of the shoe only a small amount.

Good question, though, and I hope there are other, more informed replies.

[dww]

I don't know anything about making heels higher, but I do know of a couple of girls who have had their heels made shorter, by a good inch or so. I would have thought that the metal strip inside the shoe would have to bent to the correct angle to match the new heel height to make them comfortable again.

[RonC]

Thanks.  These are exactly the things I've been thinking about - especially the pucker out at the sides.

[Dr. Shoe]

Altering the height of a heel in either direction doesn't really work as it does indeed affect the geometry of the shoe and could render them unwearable.

[Histiletto]

I have seen a person wearing pumps that were once high heeled, but apparently one of the heels had broken. So that they wouldn't be total losses, both heels were cut shorter on the angle that used the part of the heel still remaining. The pointed toe box sloped up severely and the arch was too exaggerated for the height of the heel making them look like shoes cartoon characters would wear.

The idea of lengthening a heel's height would cause the vertical support of the heel to be compromised, although I have seen some shoes that seem to have been fitted with heels shorter than the construction of the shoes was meant to have, because the vertical look of the heel sloped so that the heel tips were more toward and under the arch than the heels of the wearer's feet.

[Dr. Shoe]

Sometimes shoe makers put heels on which are meant for smaller sizes. This is often apparent in very cheap shoes.