High Heel Race

[Shyheels]

I saw this article on the CNN website about a high heels race in Spain as part of the local Pride festival. Apparently it has been going for quite a long time. Minimum heel height is four inches or 10cm - so they are racing in genuinely high heels. 
 

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/05/travel/madrid-pride-high-heel-race

 

 

[higherheels]

If I remember correctly a similar event took place in Germany a long time ago.

A high heel race sure is an interesting discipline 😄

[Shyheels]

I am reasonably competent in 10cm heels, but I don’t think I’d care to run a race in them! Partly I’d be worried about damaging my heels! But as you say, an interesting discipline!

[mlroseplant]

I'm pretty sure I could hang, even on cobblestones, but I wouldn't really want to be around that many people by choice.

[CrushedVamp]

There is a High Heel Race in Washington DC every year and is coming close now to 40 consecutive years of the running of it.

I think on May 20th, High Heel Day, men are encouraged to wear high heels to their jobs so that they understand the rigors of what some women are required to wear for shoes all day, every day. Not the same as a race I know, but I always thought that was a great idea and not encouraged enough. I read an article years ago about the day and suggestion and some men had to remove the heels only a few hours in because of the rigors of wearing them showing that wearing them did heighten awareness.

[Shyheels]

I am always highly skeptical of this business about what women are “required” to wear all day every day. While office dress codes may call for women to be in heels, as with coat and tie for men, we’re not talking about four-inch stilettos here - more typically two inch heels and rather thicker than stilettos. I don’t believe anybody should be forced to wear something they dislike or which is uncomfortable - you won’t find me wearing a tie, for example - but I think far too much is made of the “forced to wear heels” business. They aren’t in towering stilettos but in something much more demure and far easier to wear.

Lets be real: two inch heels are no more uncomfortable than wearing a tie

In my experience and observation women who actually do wear four inch heels are those who genuinely love wearing heels - and they wear them because they like them, and the emotional lift and sense of empowerment they get by wearing them, not because they want to please the men around them, or out if a sense of obligation, but because heels are a part of their identity.

 

[higherheels]

Are office dress codes even a thing anymore?

I've worked in offices for quite a while now, but never was there a dress code.

Shyheels, I absolutely agree to your last paragraph. Some women who wear 2 inch heels sometimes might just do it because it fits the occasion, but the ones who wear 4 inch+ heels most probably do it because they love heels.

For me the height is a big part what sets them apart from other shoes, and a good-looking heel starts for me at around 3 inches.

[Cali]

At work, the women who wear heels all the time love their heels. When we randomly run into each other we always compare heels.

Let's get off of this statement that heels are uncomfortable and start looking for heels that fit properly to begin with.

[Shyheels]

Yes, fit is something that is seldom mentioned in articles castigating high heels. Poor fit, lack of practice and the assumption that the heels women are expected to wear as a part of a dress code are invariably four- or five-inch stilettos colour virtually all narratives about high heels.

[CAT]

I would be in 4 and 5" every dam day if I could !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pebblesf]

27 minutes ago, CAT said:

I would be in 4 and 5" every dam day if I could !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Same here buddy

[Shyheels]

And there are women who feel the same. They’re not the ones complaining about being forced to wear heels

[Cali]

2 hours ago, CAT said:

I would be in 4 and 5" every dam day if I could !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm in 4"+ almost every day. Many day for 10 hours or more.

[higherheels]

I literally wouldn't even know what to wear to the office if it wasn't heels.

[Shyheels]

I'm fortunate in being a freelance and working from home - I can wear what I please without reference to anyone, and have made eels more or less my office dress code.