Fella pain! This neuroscientist created heels that don't hurt your feet (and your brain)

Steffie Tomson worked as a neuroscientist. He studied synaesthesia, a neurological condition in which the senses intertwine (there are those who “see” the sounds or associate colors with the letters). But in his daily life there was another of recurrent “association”, much more concrete: high heels = constant pain.

Every day, before leaving the house, he did what he called “Stiletto Math”, that is, a real mental calculation: how many meters should he walk? Where to park to suffer as little as possible? Would you have made it to go to lunch without having to change shoes? Too much effort, too much thought, too much pain.

I came to make choices in my career in order to avoid the physical malaise caused by heels. And the pain was not only at the feet: my ankles, my knees, the hips, my back took me.

Cut his heels with the hacksaw and discovered because they hurt so

One day, exasperated, he took an electric hacksaw and cut his heels in half. He wanted to understand what there was those shoes that destroyed her body. The result? Hard plastic and metal, almost no padding. A discovery that acted as a fuse.

I could not believe that expensive shoes were made like this. All the same, all uncomfortable.

Thus, in 2019, he left scientific research to found his shoe brand, “Steffie’s”. The goal was clear: to create comfortable heels as sneakers, capable of supporting the body and not damaging it.

He started to study materials in the orthopedics department of the Texana University where he worked. The inspiration came from sneakers: soft, stable, designed to support the weight of the body in motion. But when he proposed the idea to the producers, he felt answered that the foam heels do not hold up.

I wear the foam shoes every day and don’t fall. So I said to myself: let’s try.

After various homemade tests, walking hours with different prototypes, he found the right density of the foam: soft to absorb impacts, solid to not lose stability.

So the heels that do not hurt were born

In May 2021, Steffie’s Shoes he sent the first order. Today the brand offers a complete range: sandals, dancers, boots, but above all the famous T-Stap Wedges, in different colors and materials.

The details that make the difference:

Everything is designed to reduce pain, fatigue and mental distractions.

The brain is designed to protect us. When he feels pain, he doesn’t forget it. He warns us continuously: ‘This hurts, resolve it.’

And no, it’s not just a foot problem. The pain radiates. Back, knees, too. That discomfort infiltrates the day, in concentration, in life.

There is always someone, often a man, who asks her: “But why don’t you just stop wearing heels?”. His response is disarming:

Because sometimes we want to put them. And sometimes we have to.

What Steffie’s It proposes is an intelligent halfway between aesthetics and functionality. Shoes that respect the body, that do not punish, that allow you to feel good without having to give up how we want to appear.

A small, apparently frivolous gesture, which instead can change the way we move in the world, with less pain and more lightness.