The High Heeled Ruminations Of Melrose Plant

[mlroseplant]

15 hours ago, HappyinHeels said:

Hi All, 

Interesting topics indeed. As to your son’s car the mechanical issues don’t surprise me but it is quite the chance for him to show his ability to work through it. As for inspection Wisconsin nor Arizona have vehicle inspections. There is an emissions check every 2 years in the counties bordering Lake Michigan but not elsewhere. There is an emissions check in the Phoenix area but not out here in Yuma. 
As to shoes which formerly fit but which now feel different let me offer a possibility. I have noticed over the last five years or so some of my heels fit a bit differently and I believe it is because of water retention in my feet and ankles. Not terrible but subtle differences that the vamp and certain types of straps seem to fit more snugly than before. I have used a shoe stretcher on those I really liked but have worn knee high hose or even trouser socks recently. It is worth considering this may be the cause for some of you.

HinH

I've had this happen before, but it seems to be more extreme this year. Either that, or I'm walking longer distances that I used to. I have instituted a new policy when it comes to wearing shoes which have been unworn for a while. Of course, I have a checkoff list for this, which bears the heading "Vetting." I do a test walk of a mile or less, just to see where the hot spots are, if any. Sometimes, this problem goes away by itself, and sometimes there are shoes which always require some sort of barrier, such as a Bandaid, to wear for any length of time. I've got a list for that, too. Fat lot of good it's done me in the past couple of weeks!

1 minute ago, Shyheels said:

Narrowboats have to gave a safety inspection every four years.

my troubles stem from the top of a toe rubbing on the boot - no idea why that should suddenly happen, and only one toe in my left foot!

I have the same problem with sensitivity on my right big toe, at the base of my toenail. This has been an issue for decades. I can certainly remember having this problem in my 20s, and that of course was with flats. But only certain shoes do it, and some worse than others. Our bodies are at once amazing and frustrating!

In other news, I went to a college senior voice recital a couple of nights ago. A young man who sings bass in our church choir will be graduating soon, and we will miss him, both for his personality and his musical talents. He had a pretty good crowd of perhaps approaching 100 people, including about a dozen of us from the church choir. I was the only one in the whole hall wearing heels, and I had walked from my house to the venue. Alas, I had an unfortunate event with my shoes. After everything was over, I started to walk home. I didn't get 20 steps out the door, and the sole of my shoe came unglued to the extent that it was impossible to walk safely. I had to walk home barefoot. Luckily, it was only 4/10ths of a mile, and the shoe is easily repairable. Also, by that time it was dark. I don't think anybody saw me clearly.

[CrushedVamp]

On 3/27/2025 at 5:18 AM, mlroseplant said:

I don't have any more car stories today. Actually, I do, but I think we're all getting tired of car stories.

I will not say anything more about the old muscle car as a work in project as I understand how these things can be. This may not be the case with you regarding that car, but I know a few times I have spoken about projects to people online and then it takes on a world of its own. They are not doing so for nefarious reasons, but rather the opposite; to be congenial and in trying to converse with you on something they know you like.

But then the project is not done for the right reasons. Its hurried because I want to show that its something I am working on, or money that should not be diverted to the project is because of external pressure. Ultimately it just ends up not being fun because the best part of some projects is just working on them… being in the moment instead of being so focused on the end result.

It took me a long time to figure that out. I do a ton of woodworking projects, but slowly learned I was more pleased slowing down, doing things by hand like making hand cut dovetails instead of cutting them via machine, not only made the woodworking more enjoyable, but they came out better because I was not rushed to get the project done, start the next one; then rinse and repeat.

No need to feel pressured about telling us car stories as I hope its a project motivated by a father just to be with his son.

In fact, that is the novels theme I am writing about now. It is about an orphan who is a Cabin Boy in 1792 America. As the Captain of the Revenue-Marine, the boy and the captain's love interest (Abigail) take on a ruthless pirate, the orphan (11 years old) feels like he was never loved until the end of the novel when he realizes people love him so much, they will die for him. It is a true father/so story with its own nautical project; the son just happens to be an orphan.

It sounds corny in a brief write-up but is a VERY powerful story about a father's love, just not the boys birth father, but father nonetheless.

 

[mlroseplant]

Sometimes you have good days, sometimes you have bad days, and sometimes you have both at once. Yesterday when I went for my morning constitutional, I had a few extra minutes, so I decided to wear shoes that were a little bit more ambitious than what I normally wear. The shoes in question are my Nine West Plantera loafer pumps, which I have had a love/hate relationship with for over 10 years. They are one of the very few shoes that I actually bought brand new and paid full price for.

Of course the reason why I had to have them in the first place is because they've got these giant 5 1/2" heels, coupled with modest 1" platforms, which gives you a visual of super tall heels, and yet is still somewhat challenging to deal with on a day-to-day basis with a 4 1/2" difference between toe and heel. Furthermore, the heels, while slim, are quite a bit thicker than stilettos, which means the heel caps last a lot longer between replacements.

I don't often wear 4 1/2" heels for actual walking, but I decided to challenge myself on this particular morning. Wearing such steep heels usually means that my walking speed is pretty slow. If I make a mile in less than 23:00, I'm doing pretty well. The first mile out, I came in right under 23:00, so yeah, that was about right. I thought to myself at the time that my goal would be to eventually get that time under 22:00. A mile in, I'd evidently found my rhythm because things began to feel more natural and graceful. About that time, I caught a glimpse of my shadow on a storefront window, and I thought you know, I don't really look all that bad, at least not from the side. My second mile came in at 21:30. Whoa! And it was easy! I didn't know I had it in me.

I was thinking that I really ought to wear these shoes more often (I've put only 35 miles on them in about 12 years) and step up my game. With home being only a couple blocks away, I began to feel something slightly odd. Maybe I'm overly sensitive to my surroundings, but I've felt this oddness before. Perhaps it was just my imagination. I thought a shank was giving up on me. Upon arrival home, I removed my shoes and wiggled both heels. The right was solid. The left was solid, but wait.  .  . there was just a little bit of extra movement there. Hmmmmm. And that's when I saw it. Not a shank failure, but the entire heel was working toward snapping in half. It's not there yet, it's still pretty solid, but it is clearly failing. Damn! I might try to glue it since it's not nearly all the way through, but that is very disappointing. And one cannot find this model out there in the wild. I imagine they were not popular enough for them to be floating around in the used market.

So that's how I went from being very enthusiastic to being very disappointed within the span of an hour. The workday wasn't all that bad, though.

[Puffer]

That's a pretty bad potential failure (and write-off) for a decent pair of shoes from a well-established source.   Is there a reinforcing rod inside the heel?   If so, it is not doing much of a job.   I can only suggest that, if the heel material is solid enough, you introduce some superglue (or maybe a good epoxy, especially if there are any voids) and clamp until truly set.   Nothing to lose really, and I hope it works.

[pebblesf]

2 hours ago, Puffer said:

That's a pretty bad potential failure (and write-off) for a decent pair of shoes from a well-established source.   Is there a reinforcing rod inside the heel?   If so, it is not doing much of a job.   I can only suggest that, if the heel material is solid enough, you introduce some superglue (or maybe a good epoxy, especially if there are any voids) and clamp until truly set.   Nothing to lose really, and I hope it works.

My favorite Sam Edelman boots suffered the same failure, as did the Nine west stiletto ankle boots I loved...  So sorry

[Shyheels]

That’s a bad development. Unfortunately mass produced footwear, heeled or no, is designed for very limited life. I had a pair of so called hiking boots once from a popular brand and they lasted about ten miles. When I complained that these hiking boots had lasted for just ten miles, I was to.d - by someone with a straight face - that they were not designed for such “extreme” activity. 

[CrushedVamp]

15 hours ago, Shyheels said:

That’s a bad development. Unfortunately mass produced footwear, heeled or no, is designed for very limited life. I had a pair of so called hiking boots once from a popular brand and they lasted about ten miles. When I complained that these hiking boots had lasted for just ten miles, I was to.d - by someone with a straight face - that they were not designed for such “extreme” activity. 

I think it is called Planned Obsolescence, which is where they design things to fail in relatively short time frames so that people are forced to buy more of them. I once worked for a company with a highly respected product yet KNEW the paint was bad and so the product would rust out quickly. It took a class action lawsuit to get them to change their ways.

I had to replace a pair of shoes of mine yesterday that I wear at work. I love them, but the sole that is glued on cannot handle the oil I work in, so slowly the sole comes apart. I am hoping they change their glue, but if these fail I'll have to go to a different shoe. 

[mlroseplant]

23 hours ago, Puffer said:

That's a pretty bad potential failure (and write-off) for a decent pair of shoes from a well-established source.   Is there a reinforcing rod inside the heel?   If so, it is not doing much of a job.   I can only suggest that, if the heel material is solid enough, you introduce some superglue (or maybe a good epoxy, especially if there are any voids) and clamp until truly set.   Nothing to lose really, and I hope it works.

There is a rod, but for whatever reason, it doesn't go quite go the full length of the heel. I have had this exact failure once before, cf. p. 80 of this thread. Those shoes were also Nine West, different model, but of the same vintage. Oddly enough, I bought both of them brand new and owned them for more than a decade before failure. I can't actually see it on these Planteras, but I guarantee you that the heel is beginning to break right where that metal rod ends. Why they didn't make it a little longer to go the full length is beyond me, but I only know that it is so.

If I decide to attempt some kind of repair, I think I'm going to go with the superglue, simply because it takes quite a bit of force to get that crack to open up enough to get something in there, so I'm hoping the crack is less than halfway through the thickness of the heel. I don't want to break it more trying to get something more viscous than superglue in there.

I have no scientific evidence to back this hypothesis up, but it is my guess that the failure has less to do with the inadequate stiffening of the heel, and more to do with the aging of plastic. Unless something goes terribly wrong, I think I have at least another decade or more of wearing heels left in me, so I shall be interested to see just how well some of these plastics hold up longer term, and what causes them to fail.

[Shyheels]

Yes material failure seems a good bet. And I take your point regarding the repair.

Ive got a bit of a repair/cleaning issue. I was wearing some nice dark grey nubuck suede OTK boots while cooking and spilled a couple drops of olive oil on the top of the shaft. Not hugely noticeable to be sure but I want the marks gone. Naturally it would have to be the suede boots …

Yes material failure seems a good bet. And I take your point regarding the repair.

Ive got a bit of a repair/cleaning issue. I was wearing some nice dark grey nubuck suede OTK boots while cooking and spilled a couple drops of olive oil on the top of the shaft. Not hugely noticeable to be sure but I want the marks gone. Naturally it would have to be the suede boots …

[mlroseplant]

On 4/6/2025 at 1:50 AM, CrushedVamp said:

I think it is called Planned Obsolescence, which is where they design things to fail in relatively short time frames so that people are forced to buy more of them. I once worked for a company with a highly respected product yet KNEW the paint was bad and so the product would rust out quickly. It took a class action lawsuit to get them to change their ways.

I had to replace a pair of shoes of mine yesterday that I wear at work. I love them, but the sole that is glued on cannot handle the oil I work in, so slowly the sole comes apart. I am hoping they change their glue, but if these fail I'll have to go to a different shoe. 

Although planned obsolescence is a known and perhaps prevalent business strategy, I do not believe it applies in the instant case, strictly speaking. By its very nature, the entire fashion industry is constantly changing, so that my shoe failure was just an ancillary incident, having nothing to do with Nine West's business model. Let's face it--the shoes were already several seasons out of style when they broke. Furthermore, I would also be willing to bet that my particular failure is very uncommon, as very few people put high heels through the stresses that I do. Even further-than-that-more, it would be impossible for Nine West to predict when failure was going to occur, or indeed if it was going to occur at all, and therefore my shoes breaking is not really an effective way for them to maintain or increase future profits.

I'm going to go out on a limb here, because I am relying only on my memory, but I'm going to say that I've never actually broken a pair of shoes that I use only for incidental wear. By incidental wear, I'm thinking of all the @Jkrenzer approved stiletto pumps that I wear only for dressy occasions, and don't actually pound the pavement in. They get worn to church, maybe to the grocery store, or maybe out to dinner on the few occasions that we eat out. I have had a high shoe failure rate with my walking shoes, but to be fair, the designers of such shoes never imagine that they'd be used in that manner. Somehow I doubt Steve Madden did any kind of durability/wear testing before releasing this spring's line.

Edited 7 hours ago by mlroseplant

[CrushedVamp]

You make some valid points, but I am not so sure "Planned Obsolesce" is so much about planned failure about exact places of weakness, as much as it is in knowing they could do more to fortify the shoe... or product... and just don't. In that way, "planned" is kind of an arbitrary word, kind of like how someone might say "passive-aggressive".

It is more of a case of, only 10% of the produced product fails so they do not do anything about redesigning it, but if 75% fail, then to prevent costly returns, they will.

The Pinto was the classic case for this. It was originally going to be the safest car because it was designed with a gelled gas tank, kind of like how WWII planes had, or stock cars, but they took it out of production due to production costs.