Spanx founder Sara Blakely has done what women across the world had long thought impossible - she claims to have invented comfortable high-heel shoes. On August 20, the billionaire entrepreneur will launch Sneex, a footwear brand specialising in high-heel sneakers.
“Sneex are my love letter to every woman who has taken her shoes off at a party, who wears flats to work with heels in her bag, who thought her days of wearing heels were over,” Blakely wrote on the Sneex website ahead of the launch.
The line of “luxury hybrid stiletto” shoes will begin retailing at $395 (roughly ₹33,000), but the most expensive pairs will go as high as $595 ( ₹50,000 approximately). According to the brand’s website, the patented design aims to address the “major pain points in high heels” through re-engineered weight distribution, a comfortable toe box and arch support.
“Extraordinarily ugly shoe”
While the idea of comfortable high-heels may be appealing, the design itself found few takers on social media. A tweet promoting Sara Blakely’s Sneex shoes was filled with largely negative comments despite racking up nearly a million views.
{{/usCountry}}While the idea of comfortable high-heels may be appealing, the design itself found few takers on social media. A tweet promoting Sara Blakely’s Sneex shoes was filled with largely negative comments despite racking up nearly a million views.
{{/usCountry}}“This is an extraordinarily ugly shoe,” wrote one X user. “The idea makes sense. The execution is HORRIBLE,” another said.
“This is one of the worst looking shoes I’ve ever seen,” a third X user added.
A few people offered a more balanced take: “they are definitely ugly — but people also said the same thing about Crocs, and look how successful they’ve been, mostly due to comfort. We’ll see how they do!” a person opined.
Some people wondered whether Sneex would actually live up to its tall claims. “This is too literal. Making a heel look like a sneaker is not solving the issues that cause the discomfort,” X user Alex noted.
The high heeled sneakers will be crafted out of Napa leather, mesh, and suede. With them, Blakely has fulfilled her wish of creating comfortable high heels that she first expressed over a decade ago. "We put a man on the moon," she said in 2013. "Somebody needs to invent a comfortable high heel."
Sara Blakely, of course, is no stranger to entrepreneurship. She is the inventor of Spanx, the company which paved the path to her becoming the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire in 2012. Blakely, 53, has a net worth of $1.3 billion in 2024.