Elevator shoes vs insoles vs platforms
One of these is a shoe, one is an accessory and one is a different product entirely. The prices in the catalogue make the difference obvious.
There are three ways to be taller by this evening, and the arguments between them online are mostly people comparing things that were never alternatives.
1. Elevator shoes
A shoe built around the lift. The extra height is inside the shoe, hidden between the insole and the outsole, so from the outside the sole looks a little deep and that is all. This is the bulk of what we hold: 1,552 of 1,588 entries.
They cost what shoes cost. The median in this database is $179 and the median centimetre works out at $25. You are buying a whole shoe, so you pay for a whole shoe.
2. Height increasing insoles
A wedge you drop into shoes you already own. We hold 36 of them, from $2.99, and the top of the range is 10 cm.
Per centimetre they are far and away the cheapest route: a median of $7.16 against $25 for shoes. But that comparison flatters them, because an insole is not free. It costs you the room inside the shoe. Push your heel up two or three centimetres in a shoe that was cut for a flat foot and the shoe becomes tight across the top, your heel starts lifting out at the back, and the shoe stops fitting in a way that is genuinely uncomfortable rather than merely noticeable.
Under about 4 cm an insole is a reasonable thing to do to a shoe you own, ideally one with a roomy toe box and laces you can loosen. Above that, buy the shoe that was designed around the lift. That is the only thing our 4 cm figure for insoles is really saying.
3. Platform shoes
Not the same product and not trying to be. A platform puts the height outside the shoe, visibly, on purpose, and the whole point is that you can see it. That is a style decision rather than a discretion one, and it is why we do not carry them here. If you want visible height, a platform is cheaper and more honest than a hidden lift. If you wanted nobody to notice, a platform is the one option that guarantees they will.
Side by side, on real numbers
| Elevator shoes | Insoles | Platforms | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical lift | 4 to 15 cm | 1 to 10 cm | Whatever you can see |
| Median price | $179 | $14 | Varies wildly |
| Median per cm | $25 | $7.16 | Not comparable |
| Hidden | Yes, that is the design | Yes, until the fit gives it away | No, by design |
| Costs you | The price of a shoe | Room inside the shoe | Nothing, it is just a shoe |
| Works with what you own | No | Yes | No |
What we would actually do
Buy one cheap insole first, at $2.99 or so, and wear it for a week in a shoe you already like. It tells you two things for almost no money: whether you like being that bit taller enough to keep doing it, and how your feet feel about a raised heel all day. Plenty of people find out at that point that two centimetres was all they were after.
If you still want more after that week, then buy the shoe, and buy it at a height the shape can carry.
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