Killer heels but without the pain? It’s a shoe-in
TOWERING stilettos may be the height of fashion – but coping with the pain they cause can be a tall order, as women everywhere will testify.
Now, though, one entrepreneur claims she has finally found the formula for high heels that are almost as comfortable as trainers.
Dolly Singh called on experts ranging from a rocket scientist, an astronaut and an orthopaedic surgeon to help her create the ultimate comfy heels using high-tech plastics.
Designed to distribute the wearer’s body weight from heel to toe, aerospace-grade foams in the sole reduce the impact of each step on the foot by up to 50 per cent. But such functional fashion does come at a price – up to €825 a pair, to be precise.
The first shoes, with heels around three inches high, are expected to go on sale in the autumn.
Ms Singh admits they will not have exactly the same feeling as ‘tennis shoes’, but believes women will find them dramatically more comfortable. She said: ‘It’s really important for comfortable and sexy to work together.’
The former executive with a US space transport company formed Thesis Couture after convincing scientists to treat the ‘fluffy’ subject as a ‘serious engineering problem’. Her team included orthopaedic surgeon Andy Goldberg, a virtual reality firm and a ‘fashion technologist’.
The shoe’s structure will be made in Singapore, with its exterior crafted in Italy and Brazil. ‘Five years from now I want every high heel on the face of the Earth to be made the way we make them,’ Ms Singh said.
Initially, 1,500 limited edition pairs will be sold in the autumn for £610 (€800), with each numbered and signed by a guest fashion designer. A few dozen pairs will also be sent to celebrities and VIPs.
‘Our team is unlike any in the shoe industry,’ Ms Singh added.
‘We’re using advanced polymers instead of metal structures. It’s really important for comfortable and sexy to work together, the idea that they’ve been mutually exclusive is the problem.
‘Millions of women for hundreds of years have been wearing the same crappy internal architecture for a long time, so it takes an outside force to prioritise and say actually consumers will reward this and will think it’s important if we create it.’