As much as women love to stand tall in their high heels, most of them slip into their vertiginous footwear with a rather grudging “no pain, no gain” attitude. However footwear designer Silvia Fado is going to turn that mentality on its head with her collection of shock absorbing Kinetic Traces high heels. Designed with functionality in mind, Fado has utilized features such as springs, rubber balls, pneumatic hydraulics and metal rings in her collection to aid in absorbing impact and make the shoes more comfortable.
“The principal functions of footwear are often sacrificed in fashion,” Fado was quoted as saying, “This project brings sports footwear fundamentals to high-end fashion as sports footwear are based on function and wearability, both very important elements for design features that must interact with the body and be usable by the wearer.” Fado claimed to have studied impact absorption, shoe weight, traction and durability and worked with an architect and a photographer to closely study the movement and structure of the shoes. She then channeled her research into a range of flexible designs that feature different kinds of heels, different mechanisms including springs, hydraulics, rubbers balls and materials such as acrylic, steel and wood. The shoe-uppers are created using traditional techniques and a variety of colored leathers.
Ironically, the shoes are representative of potential solutions rather than for actual everyday use, which means heeled comfort aside, the designs are a touch to radical to be worn every day. Much like some other designer experiments out there, these shoes are really more too look at than to wear. Leave the ingenious but inane footwear to Lady Gaga and we’ll stick to our tried and trusted Louboutins!
[Via – Dezeen]
