A lot of what I’ve read online about elevator shoes or height increasing shoes, and particularly wearing them in clubs or bars to improve your chances with approaching women, tends to come from one of three sources:
- Women writing comments saying that guys shouldn’t wear them, because they’re “obvious” “ridiculous” or “it just makes you look insecure”
- Average height guys or tall guys saying that they don’t work, make you look stupid, and that you should “just be more confident.”
- People selling elevator shoes or height increasing shoes who say they’ll instantly change your life and make, make you irresistible, and solve every problem in your life.
Now…as a short guy in my 30s who doesn’t fit into either of those three categories (I’m being invited on the site as a guest blogger), who’s had elevator shoes in my collection for at least the last ten years or so….I’d like to share my honest perspective.
Q: Is it true that it will be “obvious” that I’m wearing elevator shoes? I’ve heard some people say they look “ridiculous.”
A: ELEVATOR SHOES DON’T MAKE YOU LOOK “RIDICULOUS” IF YOU’RE WEARING THEM PROPERLY AND BUYING WELL DESIGNED SHOES
The idea that walking around with elevator shoes will have people pointing and snickering is 100% not the case if you have any clue about fashion or style AT ALL.
First off, if you’re buying a shoe with a 2-3 inch (3-9cm) lift, any remotely well made shoe will look exactly like any normal shoe. In 10 years of wearing elevator shoes / height increasing shoes, I’ve NEVER had anyone make a single comment or observation about a pair of 2-3 inch shoe looking “strange.” IF ANYTHING, since a lot of the designs for dress wear elevator shoes are inspired by top designer brands, I’ve probably gotten *more* compliments on them than on “normal” shoes I’d be able to buy for the same price.
For taller men’s shoes (4-5+ inches / 12-15cm+), being able to pull them off comes down to two factors: one—the quality of the shoe design, and two—what you’re wearing with them.
It’s important to know that not all “tall shoes” are created equal; a huge percentage of what I come across looks boxy, bulky, and quite frankly gives me the feeling that they were designed by people who never actually took any time to get a word of feedback from their potential customers, let alone trying to wear their own products.
Even setting aside how they look, a lot of them can honestly make you feel like “Frankenstein” walking around with these incredibly heavy weights on your feet. After just a few minutes of sitting in a chair, if I had my right foot up foot resting on my left knee, I could start to feel a throbbing pain in my ankle from the weight of the shoe.
The good news is that *properly* made 4 or 5 inch shoes shouldn’t feel like that at all.
As a general rule, when you start getting into 4 to 5 inch tall shoes, one of the biggest factors for comfort will be weight and support. Properly made tall shoes should be made from as light a material as possible, and should be designed from top to bottom with the weight of the shoe as a major consideration in the design process.
In my experience, I’d say that you should ideally go for a boot or dress boot, or a shoe that has a high enough back that it can more evenly distribute its weight across a wider surface area. I’ve found that they put a lot less weight and stress on my ankles. Just as importantly, I’ve also found that shoes that come up higher make your walking look MUCH more natural.
With 4 or 5 inch / 12-15cm height shoes that don’t have a high back to them, your pant legs can fold really strangely with each step, making your feet look like they’re positioned very strangely in the middle of your shoe. I think that when people talk about elevator shoes being “obvious” or looking “ridiculous” this is one of the main images that’s coming to mind for them.
With a higher back, though, the leg streamlines much more with the foot, so that your steps look MUCH more natural, and they’re MUCH harder to notice when you walk by comparison.
Of course, the other factor that will decide how “natural” you’re looking with tall men’s shoes is what you’re wearing with them.
I’ve read differing opinions on this; I’ve seen some guys who prefer their pant legs not to cover the shoe at all, other guys who get extra wide pant legs that basically cover up the whole shaft of the boot, and others who seem to try to split the difference.
All three of these *can* work, but it definitely depends onwhat you’re wearing and your personal sense of style.
For guys who choose not to cover the shoe at all, the ones who wear them well seem to pull it off in one of two ways.
Some seem to try to pull off a runway style—they’re just so well groomed, and so stylish, that their look either pulls your eye away from their feet, or else is just so impressive that you assume that the shoes must be a part of some “European Style” you’re not cool enough to know about yet.
For other guys, the decision is to wear pants that cover the shaft entirely—sometimes meaning that they get extra wide pant legs.
The concept in those cases is to hide the “weird or bulky curve” on the back of some 4 inch or 5 inch elevator shoes / height shoes, that they believe give the shoes away as being tall men’s shoes.
With the right pair of pants, this can be a fairly effective strategy. The key is to really watch how you look walking in a mirror—some shoes are much worse than others at creating unnatural folds in your pants with every step, and can undo the effect if you’re trying to make the shoes “invisible” if you’re in an environment where you’ll have to do a lot of walking around.
Having shoes with a higher back can really help with that, as described above.
In a pinch, if you’re still worried the folds in your pants will make it slightly too obvious that you’re wearing elevator shoes, be mindful that in a club or bar environment, where you’re not necessarily doing a ton of walking around, that having boot cut pants that cover the shaft of the shoes really will make them invisible for 99% of the people you’re interacting with.
The last approach—splitting the difference—basically works out to having pants that come down about as far as they would if you were wearing a “normal” pair of shoes or boots.
In my experience, this only really works with dress boots that have tall backs to them—so that you can basically cover the “extra high” part of the shoe’s shaft with your pants, while the taller shoe shaft is there to help from your pants creating an ugly break or a fold between your ankle and the rest of your leg.
