Spanx Inventor Designs High Heels Without The Pain Or Discomfort
Images via Sneex
It’s little wonder Cinderella didn’t think twice about leaving her glass slipper behind at the ball. It’s a familiar experience for many who love the look of stilettos but dread the discomfort. The pain, the blisters, the awkward wobbling—they’re all seen as necessary trade-offs for helping us stand tall.
Luckily, there’s a new shoe in town that’s set to kick traditional high heels to the curb, courtesy of Spanx founder Sara Blakely. Just as how Spanx shaped up the undergarment industry, Sneex is lacing up to rethink the male-designed footwear—it’s a hybrid shoe that’s part sneaker, part stiletto, and all comfort.
Image via Sneex
Blakely, a woman who knows a thing or two about comfort and innovation, was inspired by her personal struggles with painful pumps. She thus set out to create a shoe that would combine the elegance of stilettos with the comfort of sneakers. After nearly a decade of research and countless prototypes across European factories, Blakely and her team finally developed a design that tackles common heel-related issues like toe squeezing, lack of arch support, and poor weight distribution.
Image via Sneex
Enter the “Hy-heel,” as the brand calls it—a shoe that pairs the sporty look of classic sneakers with the sleek, three-inch heel of a stiletto. Single, double, and wide straps are used in place of fussy shoelaces. This unique combo offers a solution to the discomfort often associated with wearing high heels for long periods, allowing women to feel confident and comfortable without compromising on style.
Image via Sneex
These shoes are engineered to keep you on your feet, whether you’re heading a board meeting or dancing the night away.
Image via Sneex
Sneex challenges the outdated notion that beauty is pain. “But does it have to be?” Blakely questions. “When people ask me, why shoes, why now? I say, ‘Have you ever worn high heels!?’”
Image via Sneex
She admits that she’s been pondering on reinventing heeled footwear “since I started wearing them.”
“I was bored with the other options in my closet,” Blakely notes. “I craved a completely new kind of shoe, something that sparked playfulness and made me excited to get dressed again.”
Image via Sneex
Blakely adds that Sneex “are my love letter to every woman who has taken her shoes off at a party, who wears flats to work with heels in her bag, who thought her days of wearing heels were over… After all, it’s hard to change the world when your feet hurt.”
Image via Sneex
[via Fast Company, CBS News, The Cut, Well+Good, images via Sneex]
