Heels and comfort don’t always go well together. However, podiatrists explain that a particular shape allows you to walk much longer without tormenting your feet.
In summer, it’s easy to spend the day outside. We go to the office, meetings, outings, sometimes a wedding or a dinner on the terrace, and the kilometers add up. As a result, the shoes become unbearable a few hours later. Indeed, many choose their heels because they are pretty, but forget an essential detail: their shape. However, it is often she who decides whether the day will end with feet in great shape… or with an irrepressible desire to walk barefoot.
Podiatrists remind us: not all heels stress the foot in the same way. Height matters, obviously, but it’s not everything. A shoe can be relatively low and remain unpleasant if it lacks support. Conversely, a slightly taller model can be much more comfortable if it distributes your body weight correctly. However, specialists estimate that beyond 10 cm in height, the front of the foot supports a much greater load. The higher the heel rises, the more this area works. After several hours, the pain becomes inevitable. However, if there is one shape that regularly comes up in the advice of podiatrists, it is the square heel, also called block heel.
Podiatrist Najwa Javed Mohammad explains in the magazine InStyle that “this wider base promotes balance when the foot is elevated”. In other words, the weight of the body is better distributed, the foot remains more stable and balance requires less effort. We then feel less pressure under the heel and under the front of the foot, especially when we walk for a long time or on cobblestones, a classic in many French cities.
Another point that we don’t always think about: the space left to the toes. Many stylish shoes end with a very pointed toe. Although this is very chic, in practice, the toes end up compressed for hours. With the heat, the feet swell and it quickly becomes uncomfortable. Podiatrist Roxann Clarke therefore advises choosing a shoe with “enough space in the front so that the toes remain comfortable”, always in the columnsInStyle. A round, almond-shaped or slightly square toe allows you to move your toes more freely without sacrificing an elegant shoe.
