Thu, Mar 31, 2005 page13

• More gain, less pain with latest high heels

  High heels have been redesigned to make them more comfortable, just as sexy, and less painful

  • By Yu Sen-lun / STAFF REPORTER
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  A pair of high heels can instantly elongate the lines of the legs and create more elegant curves from hip to toe. The right pair can even create an air of confidence, but it's hard to deny the pain for this gain.

  Wearing heels for a long walk or a full day's work has not-so-sexy consequences: The big toe is twisted, little toes are crammed, and at worst, pumps can cause serious injury to small foot bones, even knees and the spine.

  Thankfully, a new breed of high heels has begun to promote comfort and less bodily harm, so while brands of women's shoes are now divided, women who want the allure of the pump can do without the discomfort.

  While major fashion brands still flaunt the extravagantly high heels of the femme fatale, leisure brands such as Camper, Trippen, Shoex and Tods are emphasizing the sole's design and material and are creating a new image of women who walk and travel. They have seldom presented high heel shoes in the past, but the split between high-heeled and rubber-soled shoes is going to change. More and more shoe brands are marketing air-cushioned high heels or walking high heels.

  Camper, the Spanish leisure-shoe brand has enjoyed wide popularity in Taiwan recently. In eight years, the brand has expanded into 17 retail stores across Taiwan and there are more than 10 fan Web sites where fans talk about new designs, second-hand sales and rare or one-of-a-kind models. One of the hottest topics on those sites are the new feminine series called Minie.

  Minie was released two years ago and takes its name from the girlfriend of Mickey Mouse. The series aims to add elegance and chic into the brand that focuses on leisure and fun.

  The Minie series is a hybrid of classic high-heeled shoes and canvas shoes. One pair has a canvas-made shoe body, cloth shoe laces, and a five-centimeter high heel made of rubber with granular structure at the bottom.

  Another feature of the Minie series, according to F Yaming Intl (喜事國際), Taiwan's franchise company for Camper, are the strengthened rubber pad added to both the heel and tip of the shoe, offering protection to toes and heels.

  The insoles are designed ergonomically to fit the size and shape of different wearers, making shoes more comfortable for walking. The 5cm heel is made of TPU, a kind of synthetic rubber, which ensures greater flexibility than ordinary high heels.

  The colors and designs of the Minie series are also another hot topic on Camper's fan Web sites. The 2005 spring and summer designs feature bright and flirtatious colors: yellow, orange and pink.

  "Another specialty about this series is that they are the perfect shoes for spring. They don't wrap your feet so much like boots or winter walking shoes but are not thin and light like sandals," said Christine Wang, Public Relations staff at F. Yaming Intl.

  Healthy shoes are no more the synonym for unisex or non-feminine shoes, and the change is not only manifest in foreign leisure brands. Local brands are also promoting feet-friendly footwear. Local brand La New (老牛皮) in the last two years has created a shopping wave by dubbing their shoes "healthy and beautiful."

  La New, set up in 1981, is a leisure-shoe brand that originally produced mountain-climbing boots and walking shoes; women's shoes used to be a very small section in its annual slate. In 1996 the brand began researching and developing air-cushioned soles and also started to enter the women's shoe market in Taiwan. It now has 250 stores throughout the country and its annual business volume is estimated at NT$3 billion.

  The "air-cushioned high heels" are still La New's target products for 2005 spring and summer. The main feature of this series is the all-in-one, air-cushioned sole, which gives elasticity and absorbs shocks to the heel. The shoes cater to Asian women who generally have wider soles, but like all high heels, the shoes could create problems.

  "It is impossible to produce a pair of entirely harmless high-heeled shoes. We can only try to buffer gravity by more refined calculations on the structure and other details of a shoe," Kuo hsin-cheng (郭信誠), vice president of La New, was quoted as saying to local media.

  Seven centimeters to 8cm is suggested in La New's Foot Research Department (足部研究所) as the maximum height for a pair of pumps, while 5cm is generally considered a safe height. As for higher shoes, it is suggested that they are worn only at a red carpet receptions or at a short ballroom gathering. Walking more than 100m or standing more than an hour with those towers under your heels and you're asking trouble.
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