| Well another week and we go from the stress of an election to the stress of the holidays. With all that we do not really need any added stress, especially stress over our shoes. Now you may or may not have seen all the images or read all the stories of the new lines that are coming out this spring, as there are many and most of them I like. |
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There is one shoe though in particular I would like to point out as I feel it has a major design flaw. This shoe is the Gun Heel that was designed by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel Shoes and were seen in Miami at the 2009 Resort Runway Presentation. Now before we go into the many flaws |
| of this shoe, I would like to go on record that I’m not in any way trying to put down or discredit Karl or Chanel in any way. I love their products and I believe Karl’s designs are top notch and they reflect his passion for what he does, as he is truly one of the best. With that though I have to also state that it is not the design but the construction of this shoe that I believe is flawed. Many times a designer has an idea and on paper it looks great, but it is not feasible or structurally sound. This is what I believe happened here. |
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To the left you see and image of a Gun Heel shoe. While this shoe looks great, it has what I believe are flaws that will lead to the breaking of the heel and possibly injury to the wearer. I would like to point out first the white arrows, drawing your attention to the thickness of the material. This is not thick enough to prevent wobbling of the heel in a side to side motion or back to front. This wobble will cause undue strain on the mounting point “purple arrow” causing it to |
| eventually fatigue and break. The next factor in this is the point of the heel “the blue arrow”. The shape of this is round making it very easy for the heel to rock back and forth. Although this normally would not be a factor as most heels are round, it’s placement makes it so. As seen by the red line, the point is in front of the heel of the foot on the person wearing it and is not located under it as most heels are, which makes it so the persons weight is not centered over the heel but behind it. Which brings me to the green arrow. The gap here is the main issue. This gap lets the back of the shoe drop down putting even more stress on the thin material and the mounting screw. If the handle of the gun was fastened to the bottom of the shoe eliminating this gap then there would not be an issue. But as it stands, the 1 1/4″ area shown by the purple arrow is all that is preventing this heel from moving and it is not enough. |
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This is my view of how this shoe should be made. I tried to keep the overall look of the shoe in mind while also fixing any possible issues. I started by increasing the thickness of the shoe bottom to prevent any possible wobble of the heel as weight is applied from the person wearing the shoe. I then flattened the barrel of the gun giving the heel more surface area to the ground. Then I changed the handle of the gun slighty to remove |
| the gap and also to provide another fasten point to secure the heel to the shoe. Lastly I branded the handle of the gun with their logo not only to add accent to the gun, but also to show at a glance the brand. These few changes I believe would make this shoe much easier to walk in and also make the shoe itself last much longer then its predecessor.
The Highest Heel also has come out with their own version of this shoe that is available now. You don’t have to wait until spring ’09 to get yourself a pair of gun heels, nor pay hundreds of dollars to get them. We are carrying the new gun heels designed by Highest Heel / Global Footwear. Now these are not the same design as those by Chanel, nor do they carry the same price tag or possible flaws. There are two pair of sandals, one pair of pumps and one pair of calf high boots that feature this unique designed heel, all of which are a five inch platform. You can find these shoes on our site quickly by searching the word “Gun” without the quotes in the search box. |
