The once and future heel

A lot of professions have shoes specific to job. There is everything from steel toed boots to anti-static sneakers. Stripping has its own custom foot wear too. What’s different about stripper platforms is that they don’t make any changes to the shoe to accommodate functionality. It’s definitely form over function in the stripper shoe world.

I’m not sure if this is a sign I’ve been hanging out in strip clubs too long or I’ve been an engineer too long, but I’ve actually experimented with trying to improve stripper shoes from a functionality point of view.  

The first thing I noticed is that the vamp does double duty in a high heel. It both retains the top of the foot to prevent you from stepping out of the shoe when you walk and it also bears a fair amount of the person’s weight as well. The angle of the insole pretty much wants to force foot off the front of the shoe. The vamp captures the front of the foot and the person’s weight is applied to the out edges of the foot, something that normally doesn’t occur when the foot is flat. If you look at the picture of the clear heel you actually see skin being crushed flat against the plastic on the outside of the little toe. The hard plastic also tends to focus all the weight on small points of the foot..

My initial idea was modify the vamp. The does double duty, it has to capture the foot and support the weight and look good. The problem is that most shoes are purely made for looks. The hard plastic may look cool, but you’re pretty much cramming your foot into a clear sausage extruder. The plastic isn’t going to give so the foot is forced into an unnatural shape to fit the vamp. I’ve seen dancers that used hair dryers to soften the plastic to fit the foot better, but this will weaken the plastic and the shoe will probably break a lot sooner. Breaking in shoes usually means crunching your foot into a new shape.

My thought was to create two separate pieces for the vamp. There would be an internal band that would be purely functional and an out piece that would be for looks. The advantage of separating the two pieces is you can different materials for each piece. You could use a more compliant material like elastic on the internal vamp. This would prevent the weight from being focused on a single point. The outer piece would be purely decorative. It could also be replaceable. Since it doesn’t have to be attached securely you could have multiple out straps to change the look of the shoe or to customize them.

I made a fixture that matched the basic shape of the insole and experimented with how tight and large an elastic band would have to be to effective. I quickly ran into a problem with elastic. In order to keep the foot from slipping the elastic had to be so tight it was very uncomfortable. Instead of an extruder the shoe became vice. Their might be some softer, more compliant polymers or other materals that would work better but that is out of my field of expertise.

One thing I was able to get work fairly well was to create a replaceable insole. Like any work shoe stripper heels can definitely stink after a while. I got my hands on a pair of old clear heels and went to work. I carved a pocket into insole of the shoe that would hold an aftermarket gel insert. Added a little Velcro on the bottom of the insert to keep it in place. It actually ended up working really well. You ended up with shoe that you could pull the insole out and either wash or replace it. I'm sure somebody has probably done this already, but I haven't seen it yet.

I think the real future is going to be printable shoes. 3D printers are actually becoming very affordable. I’m seeing a lot more examples of those that have been created with 3D printers.

3D Printed Shoes

I was thinking of creating a software package that would literally let you print a pair of shoes. More importantly the software would let you modify to the size and shape of the shoe. You could make the shoe wider and narrower to match your foot exactly. You could also add you own designs and logos to your shoes.

I’m not sure where the 3D technology is as far as strength and colors go. Most printers now can only do one or two primary colors. The shoes in the picture above and the black accents airbrushed on. But I imagine its only a matter of time before it becomes practical. Maybe I should create a kickstarter profile to develop a custom shoe making software.