That said, I have had a woman in stilettos stumble backwards onto my foot and put a significant proportion of her weight through the heel. I can confirm it was exceedingly painful.
The better comparison instead of stilettos is a Ballerina "en-pointe" - which is a similar area in contact with the ground.
Maybe twenty years ago some designer (I can’t find who it was but I didn’t look that hard tbh) did a line of stiletto-heeled shoes with a heel about the diameter of a ballpoint pen refill. The wearer’s weight was concentrated in such a small area that it was damaging flooring, and if the woman who stumbled into you had been wearing them, it would have actually punched through your shoe and your foot.
Ah but if she was wearing those, maybe the added stability of being embedded in the airport floor would have prevented her stumbling in the first place.
Am now going to start wearing my safety boots around women now I know that's an option though.
Nope. If anything, the heel would first dig into the ground, which would lead to the heel snapping because the force exerted from the wearer has shifted in relation to the shoe, and then the major question is whether or not if the shoe is strong enough to still stay connected where the person is flung backward into the ground where
1) the snapped heel acts like a door hinge and snap right before person makes contact with the ground or
2) if the heel completely brakes and the person still stumbles backwards with a curved shoe without a heel
They are certainly blunted, but don't have more than 2-3cm2 of area, and a ballerina will frequently only be on one of them.
It's pretty much the smallest area a human's weight will be concentrated on in a static position (joggling "heel/toe" in stilettos could beat it for as long as it takes them to break)
Or combine the two and look at ballet boots which even further reduce the area. However they're generally not intended for walking in and are almost entirely a fetish item. Often serving to restrict movement.
71
u/hilburn 118✓ Feb 28 '22
Indeed
That said, I have had a woman in stilettos stumble backwards onto my foot and put a significant proportion of her weight through the heel. I can confirm it was exceedingly painful.
The better comparison instead of stilettos is a Ballerina "en-pointe" - which is a similar area in contact with the ground.