He sent the shoes to the Orthopedic Biomechanics Laboratories at Michigan State University, which focuses on osteoarthritis research: joints, cartilage, impact, injury. They also test shoes.
Ray Fredericksen, the chief shoe analyst for Runner's World magazine, does his laboratory testing at Michigan State. Last year, he tested the Oh! shoes using machines and volunteers to measure flexibility, the energy expended walking in them, the force of impact on the body and stability. High speed videos revealed how much excess motion the shoes allow.
Fredericksen has been in the business of biomechanics for 20 years and he has tested thousands of shoes. He has tested heels before -- a pair from Wolverine Worldwide -- and the problem is always heel height. Just going from one to two inches significantly changes the pressure on the ball of the foot. He has talked to manufacturers about how to create an exquisitely comfortable pair of shoes. The conversation begins something like this: "You need to increase the depth of the shoe and broaden the heel. And cut the heel in half." Usually he doesn't get any further than that. "It all depends on how much you're willing to sacrifice fashion for function," he says. "It's always a conflict between fashion and function, and in my experience, fashion always dictates function."
When Fredericksen put the Oh! shoes and their wearers through their paces, he looked not so much like a scientist in a white lab coat but like a track coach in a polo shirt, running shorts and sneakers. The heels, in Fredericksen's estimation, did well.
"I was surprised to see them dampen or disperse the forces similar to the way an athletic shoe would," Fredericksen says, "not that I think you should run in high heels."
New Highs
Three inches is the tipping point. Put on a pair of heels higher than that and no amount of currently available technology can help.
The perfect high heel, at least for the moment, still has glitches.
"When you get over three inches, it gets tough," Dananberg says. "As a podiatrist, I'm not recommending that. But I also understand the real attraction of heels to women."
Insolia's technology can be incorporated into any style of shoe, but it changes the "DNA of the shoe," Dananberg says. A manufacturer will have to tinker with the last, which is the soul of the shoe. It's a dangerous thing to mess with the soul. Oh! is still working on the aesthetics of its shoes, trying to elevate them from nice-looking toward something closer to intoxicating. It doesn't expect to compete in the rarefied world of $500 gourmet delights created by brands such as Christian Laboutin, Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo, Michel Klein and Sergio Rossi. Priced at just under $200, Oh! shoes are targeted toward "the professional working woman, lawyers, senators, bank executives," says Wells.
Still, the largest number of questions in focus groups about the shoes were fashion-related. "Most women in the groups were higher-end consumers. They were coming in wearing Prada and Manolo Blahnik. They considered the [Oh!] shoe more mature and tailored from where they were coming from," Wells says. As a result, "the spring line is much more contemporary and a little bit more fashionable."
Still, these shoes don't elicit coos. They are not particularly streamlined, needing a substantial heel to accommodate the shock absorber. They look thick rather than graceful -- not orthopedic, but not quite cool, either. They are feminine, but not sexy. Comfortable, but still not perfect.
