A Canadian expatriate working in Paris used to swap her comfortable flats for chic high heels when she got to work, but the reaction from her colleagues was disgust.
Tanya Heath was informed she should wear either flats or heels, but swapping shoes in the office was gauche.
So she chose heels, and wore them through three pregnancies before injuring one of her feet.
And after years of studying business in Europe, she quit her office job to pursue her love of shoes.
Heath, a Canadian expat living in Paris, worked with 14 engineers for two-and-a-half years to come up with her own line of shoes with interchangeable heels. Rather than changing shoes at the office, she could just swap heels.
"Our heels are actually mechanical pieces, so they're 200 times more precise than a normal heel you would get," Heath told CTV's Canada AM on Wednesday.
The heels can be swapped by pushing a button on the bottom of the inside of the shoes. The heel pops out, and a new one can be snapped in.
Buyers who purchase a pair of the leather shoes can then choose interchangeable pairs of heels to go with them. Shoes and heels are sold separately.
The shoes, made in France, can be purchased with chunky or stiletto heels in three different heights and several different colours and patterns. So far, her line has more than 90 pairs of heels and 28 shoe styles.
"Every heel has been hand-sanded, hand-filed so that it fits in just perfectly," Heath said.
Tanya Heath Paris shoes have become so popular in Europe that she is now launching a store in the tony shopping district of her native Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood. The store will be located at 138 Cumberland St. in Yorkville, between Yonge Street and Avenue Road.
On Heath's website each pair of shoes retails for between $500 and $750 CAD, and a pair of heels costs between $70 and $200. The footbeds are made of memory foam to provide maximum shock absorption, the website says.
