More on Shoes
Tom McKendree sends this link to the MIT Alumni Association's story on Insolia. Some of the best lines have nothing to do with high heels specifically but with industry cultures and practices:
"We didn't understand the shoe business worked in fashion seasons. We finally got a line of shoes and brought them to the marketplace and the retailers said 'Fine. What are you doing for fall?' We realized then that a bunch of MIT folks trying to design women's shoes was a big mistake. We had this great technology...why not sell it to other people who make shoes and make their shoes better and let them deal with the fashion stuff?
"The shoe industry is more accepting of change as it relates to styling because they view that as the most critical thing. Of course, the high tech industry couldn't care less about fashion." (After all, it took the personal computer industry nearly two decades to realize there was life beyond eggshell white.) "The point is, industries change first in their own dimension, not all dimensions."