Let’s get to the point: High heels are beautiful, but they can be a real pain

The list of things affected by the pandemic is long. One perhaps you haven’t thought of, especially if you’re a male, is high heel shoes.

Not surprisingly, sales of high-heeled shoes fell 45% in 2020. After all, we aren’t a bunch of Donna Reeds running the vacuum sweeper in a shirtdress, high heels and pearls.

But we were at home. Home wearing slippers, tennis shoes or flats. Personally I was barefoot most of the time. Our feet, lower back and knees rejoiced with the vacation from high heels.

Admittedly I’m a shoe addict. And I do have many pairs of high heels, but I’m finding that I have worn them less and less over the past few years and I have not bought any really high heels in a long time.

It’s fun trying them on in the store, looking in the mirror, turning this way and that. You feel tall, long-legged, maybe even a little sexy. We think: ‘Wow, these are high and they’re still pretty comfortable.’ We walk around a bit and buy them.

But real life is a killer, just like those shoes are. You wear them to a party where everyone stands around chatting before finally sitting down to dinner. By now you’re figuring out how you’ll have time to go to the chiropractor the next day.

As you sit through dinner your feet are rebelling and swelling. It’s as if they’re saying, “I’ll show you, putting me in these awful pointed-toed stilts. Just wait until you get up and try to walk.”

And yet there’s something about high heels and the way you feel when you put them on. I have several friends who love shoes as much as I do and they love high heels.

Pamela Ammar says for years she didn’t feel fully dressed unless she put on a pair of “fabulous stiletto heels.” She says it seemed the only fashionable shoes designers created were high heels.

“But fast forward to the last few years and now many designers also create the same, great shoe but with a kitten heel. I’m thrilled I continue to find wonderful shoes in not so high heels,” she said.

Cheryl Horton, who lives in Arizona, and I have bought many, many shoes together. We’ve also discussed how some women look simply miserable wearing high heels.

If you can’t stand up tall and walk without looking like you’re on a tightrope, go for a lower heel. Half the fun of watching an awards show is finding out who can walk with confidence in ridiculously high heels.

“Watching even young actresses hobble on stage takes the glamour out of the overall look,” Cheryl said.

It doesn’t require a degree in podiatry to know that wearing shoes that put you on your tip toes and those toes are crammed into a pointed shoe is not good for several reasons. Pain being number one.

My mom used to say “Such price, beauty” when she was giving me a home permanent that smelled awful and burned my eyes. She also said it when I would complain about how uncomfortable high heels were, but quickly added I loved how they looked.

The world has never been more casual in the category of clothing. Generally speaking people are more concerned about being comfortable than being fashionable. No wonder the future of sky-high stilettoes is wobbly.

I overheard a woman at a wedding reception say, “My husband loves me to wear high heels. The higher the better. And right now my feet are killing me.”

She was wearing a pair of high heeled sandals made of nothing but multiple thin straps attached to a sole. I almost laughed thinking of what my friend Sally Thompson said about that type of shoe.

“After a while your feet look like one of those big roasts that has string around it.”

I tried a pair of high heels on recently that had a “comfort inset.” The salesperson said it was much like memory foam. I walked around a bit, and the only memory I had was walking down the stairs at the Wichita Art Museum after standing on the marble floor for two hours in heels. Haven’t worn those shoes since.