Spanx founder Sara Blakely knows better than anybody that, oftentimes, innovation is borne out of frustration. “I had bought these cream pants that hung in my closet that I couldn’t figure out how to wear—the thong showed, everything showed—and so I created my homemade solution to wear under those pants that were better than anything else I could find on the market,” she says of her billion-dollar idea. Now, Blakely is tackling her next point of frustration: stilettos.
“I’ve been publicly saying someone should invent A comfortable high heel and I just kept waiting,” Blakely tells Vogue. “I’m not waiting anymore. Clearly, this is not on anyone’s agenda.
” Today, Sara Blakely launches Sneex, a “luxury hybrid stiletto” which retails between $395 and $595. The sneaker heels were created over nine years with patent-pending technology that claims to provide the comfort of a sneaker with the height of a heel. Originally, Blakely wanted to design a comfortable stiletto that looked, well, like a stiletto.
“I was really interested in being disruptive,” she says. “The construction of a heel hasn’t changed much in a really long time. I find that interesting.
Why? Why haven’t they?” After working with Spanish manufacturers to help create the shoe, Blakely found herself saying, “I just want to feel like I’m standing in a sneaker, but be in a 3-inch heel.” And thus, Sneex were born: “When I said that out loud, my development of a classic pump p.