Student designs party girl shoe

MAARTEN HOLL/Dominion Post

FOOT SAVY: Aimie Whiting wears her prototype high heels, designed to relieve pressure and strain on tired feet.

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The battle between fashion and comfort may be over for party girls who love their high heels but hate what they do to their feet.

Massey University design student Aimie Whiting has designed three-inch polyurethane high heels which compress when worn, relieving pressure and strain on tired feet.

Sick of coming home from a night out with excruciating foot pain, Ms Whiting said fashion should not have to hurt.

"I like to wear high heels, and I like to go out - I thought, there has got to be some way to make them comfortable."

In her design, cushions sit beneath the heel and ball of the foot, compressing and expanding like squash balls underfoot.

The same squishy plastic extends down inside the hard outer layer of the shoe's heel, so that the entire base flexes slightly with every step.

The "24-hour high heel" is still in the prototype stage, but Ms Whiting hopes to license it to footwear companies for commercial production.

Fashionistas would not be constrained to buying one kind of shoe, as the squishy base could be used with almost any style.

Ms Whiting designed the shoes during her final year of design school and said the months of design, research and development led to many sleepless nights.

"At times I haven't been to bed for three days ... I'm looking forward to being able to go to bed every night again."

The idea could save the soles of millions of party girls and Ms Whiting said she was surprised no one had tried it before.

"Shoes haven't changed in decades, they are still being made the same way they have been for ages. When you look at the heels, it's like a hard piece of wood that you are walking on."

Products such as gel-filled insoles had become available in recent years, but the shoes had been stuck in the past.

Wearing high heels can cause calluses, bunions and ingrown toenails, as well as chronic pain.

- © Fairfax NZ News