What is your favorite surface for high heels?

[LABHH]

So what are your favorite surfaces for heeling?   I haven’t found the nerve to heel beyond my own house but I have a variety of surfaces to walk on around the house.  They include lots of wood floor, ceramic tile, carpet, vinyl, and concrete.  All my heels are fairly high stilettos. 

My least favorite is carpet.  Much less side-to-side stability and no noise when I walk on it.  After a long day of heeling I find the carpet very hard to walk on due to the lack of stability.   I think my favorite is the concrete.  Very stable to walk on and the heels make a nice click as I walk on it.  The wood floor is nice as well.  The sound is more of a clomp than a click, that’s why the concrete is my favorite.  I think the sound of the heels when walking is my favorite part of heeling.  No mistaking the sound of a pair of stilettos on the move.

[Cali]

Less favorite: gravel with larger stones, followed by soggy lawns in thin stilettos.

[ohnoberty]

Wooden stairs, which I have I find really bad. However love the feeling and sound of gravel driveways and the ceramic tiles in my kitchen. 

[maninpumps]

Any surface  outside that won't damage my heels .  Over the years , I have found berber carpets to be very forgiving , shags not so much . Always check for throw rugs they can cause a good face plant . That's a story for another day . 

 

[Shyheels]

I can't imagine walking on the beach would be much fun...

[ohnoberty]

Agreed on that, although never tried as there's no sand by me. I do have a pair of lace up fenchurch Tyler boots, with a 5inch heel which might be forgiving on the sand. Still probably broken ankle recipe though.

[mlroseplant]

Concrete is definitely good for the sounds, but it's hell for wearing out heel tips. Any kind of tile is nice, too, but some heavily polished floors can be treacherous! I agree with you that wood, while certainly loud, yields an unsatisfying thumping noise. A lot of it depends upon the size of the room in which you are walking. I used to have to regularly go into a certain government building that had marble flooring, and the noise from walking on it plus all the reverberation bordered on obnoxious!

[tina]

8 hours ago, ohnoberty said:

Wooden stairs, which I have I find really bad. However love the feeling and sound of gravel driveways and the ceramic tiles in my kitchen. 

lovely sounds

[RonC]

I like the stability and comfort of commercial type carpet - no pad beneath - over a concrete floor.  Offers just a tad bit of padding for the ball of the foot while still being firm when stepping with the heel.  I don't mind concrete/asphalt, and most tile is ok as well.

Edited March 23, 2020 by RonC

[mlroseplant]

9 hours ago, RonC said:

I like the stability and comfort of commercial type carpet - no pad beneath - over a concrete floor.  Offers just a tad bit of padding for the ball of the foot while still being firm when stepping with the heel.  I don't mind concrete/asphalt, and most tile is ok as well.

I can surmise from your answer that the aural components of walking in heels is not part of your equation. I have to admit that as the years have passed and wearing heels has become ordinary, the exact sound of my heels or even the presence of sound has become far less important to me. There is a spot just off our town square where the buildings sit just right, and if you walk in that area when it's quiet, such as at night, the sound of your heels reverberates in a wildly impressive way for about half a block. If there's any traffic at all you don't really notice it unless you're paying attention.

The carpet in the sanctuary of our church is disconcerting to walk on. It must be a fairly durable wool-something, because the stuff was installed about the time I was born, and it's still serviceable but slightly raggedy, and I hate to walk on it in heels. I have never felt like I was going to fall over, but I've never felt really graceful either. It's very squishy.

[RonC]

For a while, I did prefer no sound from my heels.  Now it doesn't bother me too much, though something truly loud is not my preference.  I agree on squishy carpet being nasty to walk in.  My choice of commercial type carpet over concrete is for the stability it offers, as it is not squishy at all and offers good traction with a softening of the blow on the ball of the foot.  A berber type of carpet is fine too, as long as there is little or no pad.  It's really the pad that makes carpeting difficult in heels I believe.

[Pierre1961]

Any kind  of surface if not uneven nor slippery is fine for me. 

[mlroseplant]

I have just made a discovery within the last few minutes. Being as I'm stuck at home, like most of everybody else, I decided I'd better step up my game and at least walk around the house in some steeper heels than what I usually wear at home. So I got out my Steve Madden "Barbb" mules and gave them a spin after a winter of idleness. Now that I'm paying attention to such things, I found that they sound quite wonderful on my wooden floors, sounding crisp with little to no thumpiness.

[jetheelsfan]

The sound emitted on concrete or tile surface is readily recognizable and quickly draw my attention.  Sometimes I am disappointed to see it is a fellow with a hard plastic heel on his normal footwear.  I sure like that unique sound but cannot enjoy that at my home and have not gathered the nerve to do any shopping trips … yet!

[SF]

As for surfaces, I care less about the sound and more about a finish that won't cause me to fall on my "you know what."  Generally these are very smooth slick surfaces with a low friction co-efficient.  But that's just common sense.  Be careful out there, stay isolated....  sf