Why Hero Heels?
Be Your Own Hero. Rescue your feet from traditional high heels.
I refuse to cage myself by wearing a shoe that weakens me- that puts me at higher risk for injury, limits my abilities, and causes permanent damage to my feet, ankles, knees, back and neck. Here are some of the problems caused by traditional high heels, that Hero Heels will fight to save you from.
Ankle Injuries
In a traditional high heel, your heel is locked in an elevated, unstable position. Because all of your weight is balanced on an area a fraction of the size of your whole foot, you're much less stable. And if you fall, your heel is trapped and can't catch you. The long lever of the heel places additional torque on the ankle as it rolls.
Another component that adds risk is the rigid bottom of high heels and wedges. When a hard flat shoe is placed on a pebble, it rocks back and forth like a see-saw. It causes a harsh drop that accelerates the ankle into a dangerous position.
In Hero Heels, your heel is only elevated when your muscles are engaged and ready for action. Even when the heel is quite high, it is never trapped there. Any time you lose your balance, or need to twist or pivot, your heel and ankle are free to move in any direction. Because the bottom of the heel is able to reach the ground, even if you roll your ankle, there is less torque on the lever.
The bottom of our Hero Heels are soft and flexible- more like a running shoe. If you step on a rock or unlevel surface, the midsole bends around the rock, and absorbs some of the impact, causing less disruption to your stability and more time to catch yourself.
High Heels Shorten the Achilles Tendon!
The calves originate just above and below the knee joint, and are attached by the achilles tendon to the base of the heel. When the foot is flat, the calf and achilles (represented by the green tape) rest at their neutral length.
Resting Length of
Calf & Achilles
Calf & Achilles
shorten when elevated
Stiff Shortened Achilles
more prone to injury
When the heel elevates, the distance shortens and the green tape wrinkles. Your calf and achilles don't wrinkle. They shorten every time you go up on your toes, and lengthen when you drop back down. These tissues are dynamic and elastic, as long as they are regularly exercised and stretched through their full range of motion, but if you don't move it, you lose it.
How Are Hero Heels Any Different?
If you wear a rigid shoe that locks you into that shortened position for too long on a regular basis, the muscles, tendons and nerves physically shorten-gradually loosing the ability to stretch back into their natural resting length. They adhere to surrounding structures and stiffen into that position, making them more prone to injury, and limiting the ankle's range of motion.
Your heel is only elevated intermittently. Instead of staying locked at a constant elevated height all day, you are actively flexing through the full range of motion. Every time you drop into the flat position, you are returning the achilles and calf to its natural length. We encourage you to do this often, and make time for deep stretching, which you can do at any time in your Hero Heels!
The Calf Muscle Pump aka "The 2nd Heart"
Each pump of the heart sends oxygenated blood to every part of the body, and draws it back through the veins. But it has to overcome a lot of gravity to bring all that deoxygenated blood back up from your feet to your torso! This is where the calf muscle pump comes to the rescue. Each time your heel touches the ground, blood pools in the veins, anand as you rock onto your forefoot, it discharges the blood upward into the calf. When the calf relaxes, it allows the veins to fill with blood, and when it contracts, it puts pressure on the veins to pump the blood all the way up the leg into the torso, where the heart can do the rest. Long periods of inactivity cause blood to pool in the legs, while active contraction and relaxation of the calves relieves strain on the heart. Studies have shown that people with fully functional hearts tend to have significantly larger calves than people who have chronic heart failure.
Be Smart!
While we know it looks pretty to challenge yourself by walking and standing on your tippy toes as long as you can, remember that letting your heel strike the ground and walking through the WHOLE range of motion is important for the health of your feet AND your heart!
Foot Problems
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-Plantar Fascitis
-bunions
-hammer toe
-corns
-mortons neuroma