(Pocket-lint) – Gait-Tech may not be a company you might have heard of until now, but if you’re someone who enjoys wearing high heels, it’s definitely one to put on your radar.
At CES 2023, the Italian company revealed what it claims to be the first built-in insole solution for high heels to reveal discomfort and prevent injuries.
Interested? We were too, so we checked the heels featuring the techology out at the Las Vegas show. Here’s what we learned and how the insole is designed to work.
How does the Gait-Tech insole solution work?
The Gait-Tech biomechanical device is integrated into the insole of high heels at manufacturing stage and it is designed to “boost the comfort of high heels shoes”.
According to the company, the solution is based on 30 years of research and it works by “redistributing pressure on the foot metatarsal boon in order to provide a healthier and more stable gait when the foot is vertical in plantar flexion”.
By cushioning the impact, heels using the solution should be more comfortable without the design being compromised thanks to it being hidden within the sole.
What shoes is the Gait-Tech insole solution in?
The Gait-Tech built-in insole made its debut at CES 2023 in shoes designed by Italian footwear designer Diego Dolcini, who has previously worked with brands including Gucci, Balmain, Dolce & Gabbana and Ermenegildo Zegna.
There was a court shoe featuring the technology inside, as well as a strappy shoe in a patent black and patent blush colour. It’s hopefully only the beginning for this potentially game-changing device though.
Gait-Tech’s technology could – in theory – be placed into any shoe – whether from Zara or Christian Louboutin, we were told. As it is implemented at manufacturing stage though, the company would of course need to be on board from designing stage as this isn’t a solution that can be retrofitted.
That therefore means if you already own a pair of Louboutin’s that you adore, they aren’t about to get comfier by you adding Gait-Tech’s solution to them. The only way to experience the technology currently is in the Diego Dolcini-designed heels.
Does the Gait-Tech insole solution work?
We tried on a pair of the Diego Dolcini strappy heels featuring the Gait-Tech solution at CES 2023 though and we won’t lie, we were pleasantly surprised by how comfortable they were.
This could genuinely be a game-changing solution for heel lovers. You’d never know by looking at the finished pair of heels that they have the in-sole technology inside, but when you put them on, the comfort and cushioning is certainly noticeable.
The feeling is a little like wearing Scholl’s Party Feet but as the technology is built into the sole, it doesn’t shift around at all and responds better to your foot as you walk.
While you might still feel discomfort when wearing the strappy pair for a long period of time where the straps run across the foot, we definitely noticed a significant difference as soon as we put the shoe on compared to other similar heels we own. As we walked around, nothing twinged and there was very little pressure on the balls of our feet.
We’d be keen to see how we felt after an hour or two to really gauge the impact of Gait-Tech’s solution, but perhaps the more important point is, we would have been more than happy to continue wearing the strappy shoes for that time to find out.
We’ll have to wait and see what the uptake of Gait-Tech’s technology is like to see how much impact it could have for heel lovers but it’s a very promising step to delivering a solution to making incredible shoes feel as amazing as they look.
Writing by Britta O’Boyle.
