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Cole Haan, the high end, artisan crafted shoe brand has been owned by the Nike company for about 10 years. So it was only a matter of time before the two divisions merged their shoe lines and came up with “Cole Haan Nike Air Technology,” or comfortable high heel shoes using Air technology.
Cole Haan Creative Director, Gordon Thompson III, recently gave the background on this experiment… “As most women know, it’s quite a bit of work to walk around in a high heel. Testing showed that the weight transfer onto your foot in a heel is significant. In fact, walking in heels causes you to exert almost the same amount of pressure under the ball of your foot as if you were running! Your body weight is actually coming down with the same force as it would if you were running. It sounds crazy, but it’s true.
Research shows that cushioning in a high heel could counter balance the body’s weight enough to make a significant improvement, just as it does with running shoes. Specifically, to counterbalance the pressure while walking requires cushioning under the ball of your foot, while counterbalancing the pressure while standing requires cushioning under your heel. “
While this innovation gives hope to women who yearn to look sexy all day long wearing heels without the associated pain, the unforeseen end result may be more instances of this recent event in Berlin: The Glamour High Heel Race.
