High-heeled shoes are undoubtedly one of the most fashionable items for women. Yet their design has reduced consumer comfort and resulted in severe consequences on the human body. An optimized footbed shape is essential for high-heeled shoe design. Heel height and wedge angle are two important parameters for determining the footbed shape. This study aimed to investigate the effects of high-heeled shoes on body alignment and the differences in the compensation mechanism after wearing high-heeled shoes.

Fourteen European females have participated in the experiment. A high-heeled shoe simulator with 3 different heights and 7 wedge angles for each heel height is used to simulate different footbed shapes. A 6-camera motion capture system was applied to capture the body landmark pos...[ Read more ]

High-heeled shoes are undoubtedly one of the most fashionable items for women. Yet their design has reduced consumer comfort and resulted in severe consequences on the human body. An optimized footbed shape is essential for high-heeled shoe design. Heel height and wedge angle are two important parameters for determining the footbed shape. This study aimed to investigate the effects of high-heeled shoes on body alignment and the differences in the compensation mechanism after wearing high-heeled shoes.

Fourteen European females have participated in the experiment. A high-heeled shoe simulator with 3 different heights and 7 wedge angles for each heel height is used to simulate different footbed shapes. A 6-camera motion capture system was applied to capture the body landmark positions. A 2-way repeated measurement is applied to study the wedge angle and effects of repeated measurements on the absolute displacement of each body landmark. To support the result, body segment angle and stability are also investigated.

The effect of the wedge angle on body alignment depends on the heel height. It is demonstrated that the wedge angle has a significant effect on the thorax (25 mm), thorax and lumbar region (50 mm), and lower body (75 mm). The optimal heel height and wedge angle combinations which have a higher rating of comfort comprise 25 mm-5°, 50 mm-14°, and 75 mm-18°. The compensation mechanism is concluded to start from the ankle, and different body regions are aligned to maintain body balance at different heel heights. The body segment angles merely change with heel height differences except for the ankle plantarflexion and pelvic tilt angles.

It is recommended that future work investigate the cause of relative free displacement at a heel height of 50 mm and the reason that the optimal heel height-wedge angle combinations are different from those of previous studies.