It took a freak dance floor accident for Haley Pavone, 22, to look down at her high-heeled shoes and wonder if there was a better way.
Working her way through college at Cal Poly SLO as a business major with a focus on entrepreneurship, Pavone attended a formal event in spring of 2016. Like she always did, she chose a pair of 6-inch stilettos to wear.
After the party got into full swing, it didn’t take Pavone long to toss the shoes aside so it would be easier to dance.
“You can’t really dance in 6-inch stilettos,” she explained. “It doesn’t exactly work–you can do kind of a modified shuffle and that’s about it. I was really interested in ‘breaking it down,’ so that wasn’t going to work for me.”
Before long, she noticed that almost all the other women in the room were doing the same: dancing barefoot with their shoes left under a table or against the wall.
“A pretty common solution to high heel pain is to just go barefoot for a limited period of time,” Pavone told the Sun.
Then disaster struck.
“One of the other women that was present at the event, and still had her 6-inch high stilettos on, managed to dance onto my foot and actually impale me through the toe with the ballpoint of the stiletto,” she said before laughing. “It was definitely a very aggressive moment.”
The incident and the observations made that night paved the way for the recent Cal Poly graduate’s new San Luis Obispo-based company, Pashion Footwear. Its flagship product? A stiletto with a removable heel that converts the shoe into a flat.
Pavone said the idea should have come to her sooner.
“My professor had given this lecture literally a week before on how the best products need to solve a real-world pain because this thing people are most excited and most eager to put their dollar behind is anything that’s alleviating a physical pain that they’re feeling,” she added. “I was sitting there on the dance floor a week later, looking at my foot saying, ‘I’m definitely not enjoying this, and I’d pay money to not have to go through this again.’ And in that moment, it just kind of hit me that in the 21st century, women are wearing something that they know is going to make them uncomfortable–because you know it’s the societal norm at a formal event or professional event–you’re going to wear high heels.”
But everybody knows that they hurt, Pavone said.
“It’s kind of accepted that you are going to be severely uncomfortable and many times actually experiencing severe pain, and the only solution to that is to go barefoot or bring extra shoes with you. And that just seemed incredibly subpar to me and I thought, ‘Alright, there’s gotta be a way to address this.'”
The design is simple. The shoe looks like a standard high-heel stiletto, with one major difference: The heel is connected by a thin piece of material that runs along the bottom of the shoe. It essentially “pops” on and off as if it were an attachment without compromising the integrity of the heel. Pavone worked with a series of athletic shoe designers, including former employees of Nike in Portland, Oregon. The result, she said, is a heel/flat combo that offers similar comfort of a cross trainer or sneaker.
Pashion Footwear is currently running a campaign on Kickstarter and will continue raising money through the month of July. The goal is to raise $100,000 to help fund the first line of shoes. The three shoe style options are selling at a discounted price of $120, and full retail price will eventually be $150. Donations of any size in support of the team and idea are also welcome, Pavone said.
To learn more about Pashion Footwear, call Krista Hershfield at (805) 573-5030 or email krista@pashionfootwear.com.
Highlights:
• In July, the Santa Maria Public Library announced a partnership with the Central Coast Home Vintner’s Association to present a new program called Wine Making. The program will be held Saturday, July 21, from 1 to 4 p.m. in the library’s Shepard Hall. The Central Coast Home Vintners Association will review all of the steps in the home wine making process, from equipment selection, grape sourcing to fermentation, pressing, and bottling. This event is free but sign-up is required at the library’s second-floor information desk. Participants must be 21 or older to attend. No alcohol will be served. Questions may be directed to the information desk, (805) 925-0994, Ext. 8562.
• The Lompoc Valley Chamber of Commerce will host its annual awards banquet on July 18 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Dick DeWees Community and Senior Center, 1120 W. Ocean Ave., Lompoc. Members of the community will be honored with the 2018 Man and Woman of the Year awards, as well as the Small Business Excellence Award and the Chamber Volunteer of the Year Award. The Lompoc Economic Development Committee will also present its economic vitality award. To attend, contact the chamber at (805) 736-4567, or register online at lompoc.chambermaster.com. Tickets are $55 each.
Staff Writer Spencer Cole wrote this week’s Biz Spotlight. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, mail, or email at spotlight@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 19-26, 2018.