Rocket Scientists Are Turning to Fashion to Create a Revolutionary Stiletto

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"Smartest people on the planet" will design Thesis Couture Getty

Designing towering stilettos might not seem like rocket science – but that hasn't stopped a group of rocket scientists from creating what it hopes will be the world's safest, most comfortable high heels.

As former head of recruiting at California-based SpaceX, Dolly Singh used to walk around the cavernous spacecraft company in high heels. It was a painful experience.

Not wearing high heels was one solution; designing her own was another.

"When you rip apart a high heel, you realise that it is simply a very flat thin strip of steel, offering no support," says Singh. "A metal rod is not a good idea to stand on all day,"

Singh has now founded Thesis Couture, a company dedicated to "load-balancing, interlocking footwear technology" and is due to launch her collection online in autumn. The company's mission is "to create sexy high heels that feel great to wear".

Singh claims she now has "some of the smartest people on the planet" applying their knowledge of physics, engineering and technology to her shoes. Among them is astronaut Dr Garrett Reisman, rocket scientist Dr Hans Koenigsmann and orthopaedic surgeon Dr Andy Goldberg.

The company will make the high-end couture shoes by considering the statics, dynamics and kinematics that inform how a high heel shoe serves the foot. It will experiment with new materials to give the wearer "optimum load distribution" as well as mitigating shock and friction.

Singh points out that no other product in the world is designed by people who "don't give a damn about the actual field application."

Thesis Couture will open a reservation list in autumn with a first "founder's edition" of 1,500 pairs, priced at $925 (€874), targeting female professionals. Next year, the company will launch its first collection, with a pair of the shoes selling between $400-900 (€378-851) depending on the style.

"It's never going to feel like a tennis shoe," Singh concedes. "But it doesn't have to feel like a torture device either."