Shoes with Heels Too High for Comfort

Do you have a pair of shoes you love - but the heel is a bit too high for comfort, so you find you don't wear them? Sure, you could sell them or donate them, but there's another possible option: have the heel cut down.

I would never have thought of this, but I just spoke to someone today who had this done on a number of shoes - and now she wears them all the time, so it was well worth the money to her.

Looking on the web, I see this has worked for some other people, too - who caution that you need a really good cobbler, and you need to be realistic about how much the heel can be shortened.

Over on the Australian Vogue Forums, Fiorella wrote:

I went to a really good shoe repair guy (in Perth though!) and he fixed my heels. ... He did a wonderful job and cut them about 2cm?? But made them so much more comfortable. I wouldn't have been able to get through the night without them being cut down! You just have to make sure that they fit the size of the shoe. They can only go down a certain amount. [Jeri's note: 2 cm is a bit less than .8 inch.]

And over on You Look Fab, Lisa wrote:

I had my FAVORITE black patent Stuart Weitzman “Lady/Princess” pumps cut down. The shoe repair took 3/4 of an inch off and it really made a big difference. If you know that shoes… they are gorgeous but too tall to walk comfortably. The idea came from the Stuart Weitzman store in Las Vegas.

On LIFamilies there's another success story:

I bought a GORGEOUS pair of pointy toe black leather boots 1.5 yrs ago. I really love these boots! The only problem is that the stiletto heel was just a little too high for my comfort level. My boss recommended her shoe repair guy in Islip. I just picked them up and I am SO happy! He only cut the heel about 1/2 an inch, but that makes a huge difference for me! Now I can wear the boots and not have to worry about being uncomfortable

And here's the word from a press release by Jane Baron:

Unfortunately many of the most elegant dress shoe designs are 3-inch heeled monstrosities. ... The good news is that heels can be shortened, but the modification must be done carefully. Changing heel height alters the balance of the shoe and can make a shoe un-wearable. ... It is rarely possible to shorten a heel by more than an inch (and even this amount of reduction is too much in some cases).

Categories: organizing the shoes