High-heeled shoes were initially created in the tenth century for Persian cavalrymen to keep their feet securely locked into stirrups while shooting arrows from horseback.

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High-heeled shoes were initially created in the tenth century for Persian cavalrymen to keep their feet securely locked into stirrups while shooting arrows from horseback. The pronounced heel acted as an essential transit safety feature, allowing elite mounted archers to stand up in the saddle and aggressively murder their enemies without slipping off their ride. When a Persian diplomatic mission visited Europe in the late sixteenth century, aristocrats immediately stole the trend to make themselves look taller and more formidable. Fast forward a few centuries, and this rugged piece of military horseback transport gear has miraculously evolved into an agonizingly painful corporate fashion standard. It is endlessly amusing that an accessory engineered for highly efficient horseback warfare is now primarily used to severely limit walking speed at formal events, turning humans into the least mobile form of transport imaginable