Shoe hates

[Aglo]

May I put a good word in for rubber flip-flops! 35 years ago I used to walk around the hills of Nepal in them. Incredibly practical for the landscape (as long as you avoided stubbing a toe), they could be whipped off to wade across a river and prevented your feet becoming boiled potatoes in the hot weather (although sometimes the sweat made them too slippery, especially on the downhill where I had to carry them and go barefoot on occasion). I am still walking the Nepali hills, but can't wear them now as you need to wear them all the time to keep the soles of your feet thick and hard.

I am another who does not like pointy toes. Today, I threw out a couple of pairs that had been languishing in my wardrobe, unworn, years. It was this act that prompted this post . .

[bootsmike]

I would add the army boot derivative. Unfortunately these are very popular with women for a couple of years. Probably very comfortable, sensible and... ugly!

[Shyheels]

Not a favourite of mine either, but as you say quite popular 

[Cali]

Sorry, I have a pair for snowy, icy days. Stilettos and ice do like each other.

[Shyheels]

I have several pair of knee boots with Vibram or rubber soles for just those sorts of days, or where I am working in treacherous conditions 

[pebblesf]

On 4/27/2020 at 6:51 AM, maninpumps said:

FLIP FLOPS over all else for me ! The sight of them with the foam sole and plastic thong just makes me cringe . I have changed my seating in restaurants because some clown would wear them in the place . Then there is the fact of disgusting  toes hanging out and dirty feet just a few yards from where I am sitting . Oh , and let's not forget the displaced foam / rubber soles of these things ...... really they need a load bearing weight stamped on the sole . I think the rest goes without saying . Pure laziness or you can't  reach your feet are the only reasons these hideous things are made for . 

You make an excellent point here.  You really need to make sure you feet/toes are properly maintained and manicured if you are going to wear open toe footwear such as sandals....

On 8/28/2020 at 7:12 AM, Jkrenzer said:

I used to have a pair of Rosas. Toes scraped when walking, wore through them quickly. Not good.

I had another issue with them. They come with flared heel tips, impossible to find. I contacted them about buying spate tips. Got the impression in very convincing manner that they wanted nothing to do with a guy wearing their shoes. Communication stop after a couple back and forths this instant i mentioned who i was.

It is amazing how foolish some sales people/departments can be.  

[stevey2]

wedges

[Bubba136]

7 hours ago, stevey2 said:

wedges

If it wasn’t for different tastes in fashion there wouldn’t be so many types, colors and styles for us to choose from.  I too dislike flip flops.  Shower shoes.  Wore them in my early military days.  Also put Crocks in that same category.  But I really do like wedge heel sandals.  Wear them with summer wear, shorts tea shirts and swimsuits, most days where I live.  Large style selection to wear with every occasion.  I keep about six different pairs on hand each season and usually buy two or three new pair every year. I prefer 3 1/2” to 5” cork heels.  They also look good, in my opinion, with casual trousers.  Wearing them for that casual, relaxed, not a care in the world look every retired guy displays going about their business.

[Shyheels]

I don’t wear sandals but I do think it is a style that particularly suits wedges. I dislike wedge heeled boots though. To my mind the height of a boot calls for the elegance of a more sculpted heel.

 

[Bubba136]

6 hours ago, Shyheels said:

I don’t wear sandals but I do think it is a style that particularly suits wedges. I dislike wedge heeled boots though. To my mind the height of a boot calls for the elegance of a more sculpted heel.

 

I do have a pair of ankles b00ts but haven’t worn them since the last time we had snow. A couple of years ago.  The heels are so noisy they attract attention which I don’t particularly care about. 

[Shyheels]

I agree with you on the noise. I'm not about attracting attention either.

The acoustics seems to depend on the design of the boot rather than specifically a high heel, although of course heels will accentuate it. 

 

 

[Cali]

Men's dress shoes also have the power 'click'.

Edited December 14, 2023 by Cali

[Shyheels]

They do! It’s the leather soles, even with standard men’s  heels 

[Puffer]

Apart from steel-tipped stilettos, the noisiest footwear is probably that with the fairly chunky hollow plastic heels, peg-fitted with a plastic top piece.   As I and others have commented elsewhere, these top pieces either wear or come adrift and replacement ideally requires an infill (e.g. wood) to the hollow heel before adding a new rubber or composition top piece, after which the heel is much quieter and more discreet.

[mlroseplant]

I have a love/hate relationship with wedges. I treat them as second class citizens in my collection, but at the same time I feel more comfortable wearing them, especially with shorts. I know it is very silly, but somehow I feel less self-conscious when wearing wedges with shorts as compared to shoes with separate heels. I have no idea why this would be, as I'm sure the subtlety is lost on anybody outside of the shoe/fashion world. As we've mentioned before, wedges can be more practical when walking on surfaces that are not hard and flat. That's the love part.

The hate part is, I just don't generally like the way they look, especially as you increase in heel and/or platform height. They get enormous looking. Maybe that will make them popular this year, as enormous shoes seem to be very much in fashion right now. This effect can be somewhat ameliorated if the wedge is somewhat sculpted and narrows somewhat as it nears the ground. Along with this enormity, I have never found a pair of wedges above mid-heel height that don't feel somewhat clumpy to walk in.

Wedges comprise about 10% of my shoe collection, and they are all sandals, save two pairs of clogs. They also tend to be significantly lower, on average, when compared to my separately heeled shoes.

[Jkrenzer]

Wedges are the ultimate casual high heels. They don't have any glamor and don't provide the visual appearance of walking on air. Not surprised you may not treat them the same.

[Cali]

I have stilettoe wedges from Victoria's Secret. This heel certainly not casual.

[Shyheels]

Stiletto wedges? Is that not a contradiction in terms?

[Cali]

1 hour ago, Shyheels said:

Stiletto wedges? Is that not a contradiction in terms?

I knew I had to repost this picture from 2017. 

One of my first "what the hell am I doing" moments when I got these and a pair of VS floating platform stilettos. My first stilettos.

 

[Jkrenzer]

3 hours ago, Cali said:

I knew I had to repost this picture from 2017. 

One of my first "what the hell am I doing" moments when I got these and a pair of VS floating platform stilettos. My first stilettos.

 

Those are casual my friend and not stilettos. Not saying I don't like them but they are not glamorous. 

[Shyheels]

That is what I’d call the thinned of the wedge, but not a stiletto. A stiletto gets its name from the Italian dagger. I defy anyone to stab somebody with the heel on those wedges, or any wedges.

[Cali]

Back in 2017, Victoria’s Secret advertised them as "stiletto wedges". They are about as wide as many stilettos at the back. They attract lots of attention when I wear them.

 

 

[Shyheels]

I don’t dispute they are nice looking sandals, or that the back of the hell may be as narrow as some varieties of stiletto, but the stiletto is tapered, pouty and calls to mind the lethal blade of a dagger. These would be more like a cleaver.

[Puffer]

On 12/15/2023 at 11:08 AM, mlroseplant said:

I have a love/hate relationship with wedges. I treat them as second class citizens in my collection, but at the same time I feel more comfortable wearing them, especially with shorts. ...

I wonder if you would like/wear these - they seem to me to your taste?  They certainly are to mine - a strappy sandal with a narrow wedge heel typically combines practicality with elegance, whilst remaining relatively casual.  

I bought these wedges in a 'Linzi' sale just before Christmas 2022 as a gift for my wife, who likes sandals but is increasingly reluctant to wear heels.   They are a UK7 and the narrow wedge heel is 4"; the colour is a pale cream/ivory.   My wife liked the style and wore them once briefly on holiday in the summer, but says they are 'too high' for her.   I give up!

As to 'stiletto wedges', I have to agree that this is a contradiction in terms.   A stiletto heel must be a separate heel, narrow in both side and end elevations.    But I have seen the label applied to several wedge styles, on the apparent grounds that the very narrow back of the heel is of similar appearance to a true stiletto.

[mlroseplant]

I was a little bit curious to see just how narrow my skinniest wedges actually are, and I have come to the conclusion that they simply don't achieve stiletto status in any dimension. If you will refer to the picture below, you can see that the middle of the wedge narrows more than the part that actually touches the ground. This narrow part measures 7/16" wide, or just over 11 mm. The heel cap measures 5/8". This is obviously skinnier than the Victoria Secret "stiletto" wedge, and yet even it is still too big to be a stiletto, so not only is the marketing a contradiction, it's an exaggeration in any dimension. That being said, I think that the VS wedge is well proportioned, attractive, and not enormous. They should make all wedges that way, they just shouldn't call them stilettos.

I shall have to check one of my wife's many closets, I believe she may have a couple pairs of actual "meat cleaver" shoes, as Shyheels so aptly and humorously called them. If I find them, and if they are indeed as narrow as I remember, I will post a picture. They are buried in a closet somewhere because she brought them from Vietnam 15 years ago, gave birth to our son less than a year later, and her feet grew a size larger permanently. It's a common problem, I understand.

Edited December 17, 2023 by mlroseplant

[5150PLB1]

Let's face it. It takes a lot more concentration and effort to maintain one's balance and footing on a pencil thin stiletto, than a so-called stiletto wedge heel.  With a real stiletto heel there is no room for slips and mistakes. With a wedge heel, there is plenty of the shoe or boot to cover any minor errors in one's footing.  

[Puffer]

Melrose: I am still interested in knowing your opinion of the wedge sandals I pictured above, given your amnbivalent view of wedges.   Something you would wear, or not?

[mlroseplant]

On 12/19/2023 at 3:18 AM, Puffer said:

Melrose: I am still interested in knowing your opinion of the wedge sandals I pictured above, given your ambivalent view of wedges.   Something you would wear, or not?

I get a really strong feeling that we've had this discussion before, but I'm unable to find any proof of it in a reasonable amount of time. I even seem to recall saying that I'd like them rather better if they had a thong toe piece. Anyway, yes, I'd wear them, but I don't know that I'd actually pay money for that privilege. Not crazy about the square shape, but it's not severe, so it might be all right. The skinny straps might be uncomfortable after a time, or they might not be. I do not know how much this answer differed from my previous answer.

[Puffer]

11 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

I get a really strong feeling that we've had this discussion before, but I'm unable to find any proof of it in a reasonable amount of time. I even seem to recall saying that I'd like them rather better if they had a thong toe piece. Anyway, yes, I'd wear them, but I don't know that I'd actually pay money for that privilege. Not crazy about the square shape, but it's not severe, so it might be all right. The skinny straps might be uncomfortable after a time, or they might not be. I do not know how much this answer differed from my previous answer.

You are quite right - I find that we did discuss this just over a year ago, on your 'ruminations' thread.   My apologies for not remembering and repeating my question.    And, yes, your opinion now matches that of a year ago!   

I see that I also mentioned then another pair of my wife's wedge sandals in which you expressed some interest.   Alas, I found that she had thrown them out following some heel damage so I could not provide the intended picture.

[mlroseplant]

That's very funny. I don't know why I remember that, I can't seem to remember anything else these days.

And now, for what might be the final word on the so-called stiletto wedge, I dug my wife's shoes from Vietnam out of the closet to see if their actual appearance matched with my memory. It pretty much did, but they weren't quite as stilleto-y as I remembered. Yes, they have a fairly narrow heel, especially for a wedge, but they are no more narrow than the blue suede mules I posted above. They are also a very unimpressive 3 3/8" in heel height, but my wife never did wear what I would call "high" heels, even when she wore heels every day.