How Science Can Heel Fashion: Re-engineering the High Heel

By Ellice Patterson

We’ve all felt the regret and pain of wearing high heels for a fun night out or for a full work day. The blisters and soreness have us throwing off the shoes at the earliest convenience and soaking our feet in an ice bath sent from the gods. More serious than the pain, according to the study conducted by University of Alabama at Birmingham, between 2002 to 2012 there were 123,355 emergency room visits solely due to high heel related injuries. Clearly our high heel addiction can lead to serious consequences. Dolly Singh, founder and CEO of Thesis Couture, is hoping to take out the hurt of high heels and really change the high heel game.

As a former executive of Spacex and lover of high heels, she would find herself in pain walking back and forth on the hard floors. Rather than complain of her feet, she decided to do something about it. She created Thesis Couture, a fashion company committed to redesigning the high heel. With her scientific background, she created a Research and Development team, which is unheard of in the fashion world, consisting of a rocket scientist, an astronaut, an orthopedic surgeon, a material expert, and a fashion scientist. The team made the high heel problem a physics problem and replaced the standard metal shank of heels with thermoplastic urethane, a polymer similar to that used in tires. The polymer does a much better job in distributing the weight of the person across the entire foot and leaves the wearer in a lot less pain. Keep in mind these aren’t your grandma’s orthopedic shoes. These are still your classy, sexy stilettos but redesigned with all of the comfort.

However, comfort and sexy costs. While Thesis Couture has yet to launch the designs in their lookbook for public consumption, their aim is to be in the classic luxury bracket, as they estimate prices to be $350 - $950. If you’re a struggling scientista like me, you won’t see those heels for a while even after their public launch. Even so, I’ll still be putting my pennies away to afford those heavenly stilettos that soon most of America will be wearing as we learn to prioritize fashion and comfort.

Award for the most fashionable scientista clearly goes to Dolly Singh for combining her scientific background and love of fashion to address a problem that affects so many women and do it all in style. Her slayage won’t go unnoticed as I hope to one day afford and comfortably rock those high heels.

Additional Sources:
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/re-engineering-womens-high-heels-to-maximize-comfort/
http://thesiscouture.com/heels-designed-by-rocket-scientists/
 

About the Author
Ellice Patterson is a recent graduate of Wellesley College! As a biology major, her research endeavors have taken her across different biological disciplines and across the world. From sailing across the Atlantic studying primary production in relation to nutrient concentrations to trekking in the Costa Rican rainforests analyzing spider species composition, she has done it all. Outside of science, she continues to grow as a dancer while being a master’s candidate at Boston University Questrom School of Business. In general, she slays, all day.

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