The high-heeled shoe is ubiquitous despite its hazards and discomforts. Inspired by the figure skating world, Figured Out Heels uses heat-molding technology to create a perfect, individualized fit.
Premise
Women choose high heels for reasons such as fashion and height, and generally not for comfort or health. Our fieldwork indicates that women would prefer shoes that were more comfortable and more stable, but not at the expense of the appearance of the shoe. As a result, shoes that compromise the form of the shoe do not meet a target demand.
While high heels are not designed for stability, figure skates are. Skates are heat-molded at the point of purchase to each athlete’s feet to create a stable fit. Far from the feeling of rental skates, molded figure skates are soft and feel more like a sock than a shoe. The following video shows the sharp contrast between the two experiences exposed in our fieldwork.
Proposal
Figured Out Heels proposes the custom-fit high heel. A 3d-scan of each foot will be taken at an onsite location. This scan will reproduce a 3d-printed sole at the exact contour of the foot. The sole will then be attached to the leather-outer heat-moldable-inner shoe upper. The final process is to heat-mold the final product to the customer’s foot.
Since our research indicates that women like the aesthetic of high heels, this technology will be adopted to an already existing aesthetic – the bootie. Combining fashion and comfort, this shoe will appear from the outside to be a normal designer shoe, while secretly concealing our perfect fit technology.
Documentation
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