Monday, July 31, 2006
High-tech heels
High-tech heels
We can send someone to the moon, so why can't our stilettos be comfy? asks LIZA FINLAY. That was before she wore the latest NASA-inspired high heels
LIZA FINLAY
Special to The Globe and Mail
I went to an advanced screening of The Devil Wears Prada. The audience was filled with cool people -- you know, fashion designers, editors, photographers and models. I wanted to look good. Scratch that -- I had to look good.
I chose jeans (safe) and dressed up my look with a pair of pumps given to me by a PR person for test-driving. Walking into the theatre -- without the slightest bit of wobbling -- I stopped to chat with my host (an important cosmetics company executive), a publisher (of an important fashion magazine) and a Web designer (a self-important geek).
"Love the shoes," the publisher said. "What, these?" I said, trying to appear nonchalant.
Onscreen, only minutes into the movie, Anne Hathaway's fashion-challenged character, Andy Sachs, was rescued from a wardrobe malfunction by a pair of stilettos. I looked down at my own three-inch beauties and exhaled, finally.
After the movie and the requisite round of air-kissing, it occurred to me: Not once had I skulked to the ladies' room to tear off my new heels and massage my aching feet.
I was comfortable and confident, and I had technology to thank. Indeed, my debt of gratitude was to none other than NASA. Lining my Anyi Lu shoes was a two-millimetre layer of Poron, which is used for seat cushions in space shuttles. A polymer made up of tiny air bubbles that act as a shock-absorption system, Poron doesn't bottom out under pressure.
"You literally can't feel the ground beneath you," says Ron White, owner of Ron White/The Foot Shoppe, exclusive carriers of the California-based Anyi Lu line in Canada. "It's like putting cashmere on after wearing wool all your life. There's no comparison. Once you've worn heels with Poron, you can never go without. It completely revolutionizes the notion of comfort shoes."
The gulf -- forget that, it's more like the Grand Canyon -- that divides the fashionable-but-painful from the ugly-but-comfortable is closing. For those of us puzzled over why science can send men to the moon but can't make high heels wearable, it has been a long time coming.
"When a woman is wearing stilettos, all the medial and lateral muscles and tendons are working at least twice as hard," White says.
"It's like balancing on a balance beam or the head of a pencil."
The heel of the Anyi Lu shoes is wider than the usual pickle-stabbers too, so a woman's body alignment is correct, thus reducing stress on knees and lower back.
White also works with designers such as Stuart Weitzman and Donald Pliner to customize designs to optimize comfort in high-fashion styles. "I don't want to step on their toes," the 36-year-old entrepreneur says, "but I like to change it up. With Arche [another brand], I'll take one of their uppers and ask to put it on a different sole, so we're changing it all around. I like to funk things up."
White's retailer-to-designer negotiating has resulted in some top-selling shoes, thus earning him a great deal of international respect: He has been asked to participate in panel discussions at various international footwear forums.
A decade ago, White saw an opportunity. He was ahead of the pack: The Chicago Tribune reported this month double-digit growth in this comfort category over the past year.
He knew the boomer market wanted comfort but wanted it with some sex appeal too. "I have customers like Wendy Muller, the head of Google Canada -- fashion-interested, they go to all these events, film festival things, launches -- and she says to me, flat out, 'Look Ron, me and all my friends my age are on our feet all day and now we're at a cocktail party and we're still standing. Help me.' "
Cole Haan was another pioneer in the chic-comfort category, with the launch of its G Series about four years ago. This fall, it has gone full-tilt fashion with 3½-inch heeled pumps, wedges and platform slingbacks, all with Nike Air technology.
This new breed of comfort shoes is a hit. White recounts the tale of one shopper who came in one day and bought 16 pairs. She returned the next day and added 10 more to her splurge. At $500 and up a pair, that's no small indulgence.
It seems no matter how often women hear that high heels are bad for them, they aren't going to give them up. The first written record of the style dates back to the mid-16th century, when the diminutive Catherine de Medici cobbled together a pair of heels to elevate her stature. For the coming season, everyone from Balenciaga to Yves Saint Laurent couldn't get high enough. Fetish-like platform boots and outrageous, spike-heeled pumps were shown at those influential shows.
The higher the heel, the more weight is thrown onto the ball of the foot. But that's okay, says Robert Chelin, the Toronto-based vice-president of the International Federation of Podiatrists, provided you wear the right shoes.
Sure, heels throw weight onto the balls of the feet and if posture isn't perfect, they can place pressure on the knees and lower back, but with a little comparison-shopping, heel wearers can mitigate those injuries.
Chelin recommends rounded over pointy toes (to prevent bunions), chunky heels that are less likely to wobble and, of course, Poron insoles.
He's also pioneering the use of collagen injections in the balls of the feet to provide extra cushioning. It's a procedure much in demand in Manhattan among "the clackers," as The Devil's Andy Sachs calls noisy, stiletto-wearers.
"You should try it," Chelin says.
I'll pass. The devil may wear Prada, but I'm sticking with my new Anyi Lus.
The stiletto workout
A chain of American gyms recently launched a new workout aimed at making stiletto-wearing less insufferable. Called Stiletto Strength, the class is now offered at Crunch Fitness locations in Manhattan, Miami and Los Angeles.
In the class, participants are put through a rigorous set of exercises aimed at strengthening ankles, calves, thighs and glutes. Pliés, tondués, relevés -- a host of ballet-inspired movements -- are intended to build up the muscular support system that is strained by the wearing of stilettos.
Then the fun begins. "In the last 15 minutes [of the class], the women pull out their shoes," says Crunch Gym's group fitness director Marie Forleo. "I have them walk back and forth across the gym, correcting posture so less pressure is placed on knees and back."
With chests high and core stomach muscles engaged, participants practise holding drinks, dancing, navigating crowded pavement, all while wearing their most deadly of heels.
"Look," Forleo says, "if you're wearing bad shoes [with only a thin leather insole and ultra-pointy toe], no amount of training is going to help. But if you've got good shoes, this class can really help improve posture, strengthen the ankles, calves and butt and really make heels more bearable."
Herewith, Forleo's recipe for stiletto success:
Squat with calf raise
1. Stand with feet hip-width apart, weight on the heels and hands on hips.
2. Slowly bend the knees in a squat, imagining that there is chair right behind you. Stop when thighs are at a 90-degree angle to calves.
3. While in the squat, rise up on the balls of the feet. Be sure to engage the stomach muscles by imagining the belly button being pulled toward the spine.
4. Lower the heels back down to the ground and then straighten the knees to come back to a neutral stance.
5. Repeat 10 times.
-- Liza Finlay
We can send someone to the moon, so why can't our stilettos be comfy? asks LIZA FINLAY. That was before she wore the latest NASA-inspired high heels
LIZA FINLAY
Special to The Globe and Mail
I went to an advanced screening of The Devil Wears Prada. The audience was filled with cool people -- you know, fashion designers, editors, photographers and models. I wanted to look good. Scratch that -- I had to look good.
I chose jeans (safe) and dressed up my look with a pair of pumps given to me by a PR person for test-driving. Walking into the theatre -- without the slightest bit of wobbling -- I stopped to chat with my host (an important cosmetics company executive), a publisher (of an important fashion magazine) and a Web designer (a self-important geek).
"Love the shoes," the publisher said. "What, these?" I said, trying to appear nonchalant.
Onscreen, only minutes into the movie, Anne Hathaway's fashion-challenged character, Andy Sachs, was rescued from a wardrobe malfunction by a pair of stilettos. I looked down at my own three-inch beauties and exhaled, finally.
After the movie and the requisite round of air-kissing, it occurred to me: Not once had I skulked to the ladies' room to tear off my new heels and massage my aching feet.
I was comfortable and confident, and I had technology to thank. Indeed, my debt of gratitude was to none other than NASA. Lining my Anyi Lu shoes was a two-millimetre layer of Poron, which is used for seat cushions in space shuttles. A polymer made up of tiny air bubbles that act as a shock-absorption system, Poron doesn't bottom out under pressure.
"You literally can't feel the ground beneath you," says Ron White, owner of Ron White/The Foot Shoppe, exclusive carriers of the California-based Anyi Lu line in Canada. "It's like putting cashmere on after wearing wool all your life. There's no comparison. Once you've worn heels with Poron, you can never go without. It completely revolutionizes the notion of comfort shoes."
The gulf -- forget that, it's more like the Grand Canyon -- that divides the fashionable-but-painful from the ugly-but-comfortable is closing. For those of us puzzled over why science can send men to the moon but can't make high heels wearable, it has been a long time coming.
"When a woman is wearing stilettos, all the medial and lateral muscles and tendons are working at least twice as hard," White says.
"It's like balancing on a balance beam or the head of a pencil."
The heel of the Anyi Lu shoes is wider than the usual pickle-stabbers too, so a woman's body alignment is correct, thus reducing stress on knees and lower back.
White also works with designers such as Stuart Weitzman and Donald Pliner to customize designs to optimize comfort in high-fashion styles. "I don't want to step on their toes," the 36-year-old entrepreneur says, "but I like to change it up. With Arche [another brand], I'll take one of their uppers and ask to put it on a different sole, so we're changing it all around. I like to funk things up."
White's retailer-to-designer negotiating has resulted in some top-selling shoes, thus earning him a great deal of international respect: He has been asked to participate in panel discussions at various international footwear forums.
A decade ago, White saw an opportunity. He was ahead of the pack: The Chicago Tribune reported this month double-digit growth in this comfort category over the past year.
He knew the boomer market wanted comfort but wanted it with some sex appeal too. "I have customers like Wendy Muller, the head of Google Canada -- fashion-interested, they go to all these events, film festival things, launches -- and she says to me, flat out, 'Look Ron, me and all my friends my age are on our feet all day and now we're at a cocktail party and we're still standing. Help me.' "
Cole Haan was another pioneer in the chic-comfort category, with the launch of its G Series about four years ago. This fall, it has gone full-tilt fashion with 3½-inch heeled pumps, wedges and platform slingbacks, all with Nike Air technology.
This new breed of comfort shoes is a hit. White recounts the tale of one shopper who came in one day and bought 16 pairs. She returned the next day and added 10 more to her splurge. At $500 and up a pair, that's no small indulgence.
It seems no matter how often women hear that high heels are bad for them, they aren't going to give them up. The first written record of the style dates back to the mid-16th century, when the diminutive Catherine de Medici cobbled together a pair of heels to elevate her stature. For the coming season, everyone from Balenciaga to Yves Saint Laurent couldn't get high enough. Fetish-like platform boots and outrageous, spike-heeled pumps were shown at those influential shows.
The higher the heel, the more weight is thrown onto the ball of the foot. But that's okay, says Robert Chelin, the Toronto-based vice-president of the International Federation of Podiatrists, provided you wear the right shoes.
Sure, heels throw weight onto the balls of the feet and if posture isn't perfect, they can place pressure on the knees and lower back, but with a little comparison-shopping, heel wearers can mitigate those injuries.
Chelin recommends rounded over pointy toes (to prevent bunions), chunky heels that are less likely to wobble and, of course, Poron insoles.
He's also pioneering the use of collagen injections in the balls of the feet to provide extra cushioning. It's a procedure much in demand in Manhattan among "the clackers," as The Devil's Andy Sachs calls noisy, stiletto-wearers.
"You should try it," Chelin says.
I'll pass. The devil may wear Prada, but I'm sticking with my new Anyi Lus.
The stiletto workout
A chain of American gyms recently launched a new workout aimed at making stiletto-wearing less insufferable. Called Stiletto Strength, the class is now offered at Crunch Fitness locations in Manhattan, Miami and Los Angeles.
In the class, participants are put through a rigorous set of exercises aimed at strengthening ankles, calves, thighs and glutes. Pliés, tondués, relevés -- a host of ballet-inspired movements -- are intended to build up the muscular support system that is strained by the wearing of stilettos.
Then the fun begins. "In the last 15 minutes [of the class], the women pull out their shoes," says Crunch Gym's group fitness director Marie Forleo. "I have them walk back and forth across the gym, correcting posture so less pressure is placed on knees and back."
With chests high and core stomach muscles engaged, participants practise holding drinks, dancing, navigating crowded pavement, all while wearing their most deadly of heels.
"Look," Forleo says, "if you're wearing bad shoes [with only a thin leather insole and ultra-pointy toe], no amount of training is going to help. But if you've got good shoes, this class can really help improve posture, strengthen the ankles, calves and butt and really make heels more bearable."
Herewith, Forleo's recipe for stiletto success:
Squat with calf raise
1. Stand with feet hip-width apart, weight on the heels and hands on hips.
2. Slowly bend the knees in a squat, imagining that there is chair right behind you. Stop when thighs are at a 90-degree angle to calves.
3. While in the squat, rise up on the balls of the feet. Be sure to engage the stomach muscles by imagining the belly button being pulled toward the spine.
4. Lower the heels back down to the ground and then straighten the knees to come back to a neutral stance.
5. Repeat 10 times.
-- Liza Finlay
Post Comment 8:20 PM 
