The click clacking sound of high heels can give anyone the greatest amount of confidence. But what about when it doesn’t? High heels are not always fun to listen to, especially if you work in an office where things need to be kept quiet.
If you want to know how to make heels quieter then you’ve come to the right place.
Here are 6 things you can do to make your heels a quiet shoe to walk in. These tips will also help to make boot heels quieter.
Oh, and keep an eye out for some of the things you should look out for when you want to buy new heels.
How To Make Heels Quieter - 7 Easy Tips
1.Gel Cushions
Before we explain what gel cushions do, we want you to know why you need it. A lack of traction or grip inside your shoe can be a huge contributor to the unwanted noise you’re hearing from your shoe.
It’s also kind of linked to how much control you have over how your shoe moves. For example, if you buy a shoe that’s just a little bit too big, your shoe ends up having a mind of its own and doesn’t move with your foot as easily as you’d like.
That contributes to the click clack sound you often hear when you wear high heels.
So now we get to the question, how do gel cushions help? Gel cushions give you the support you need inside your shoe and help you with your grip. That means you get to have more control over your shoe and essentially how noisy it is.
And don’t worry if your shoes are a little bit too big. The gel cushions also prevent your foot from slipping inside the shoe. Yes, you can keep that new pair of shoes.
Wearing heels is pretty painful sometimes, so we love that it also relieves any unwanted tension and pain that you’d normally feel when you wear your heels.
After a bit of research, we thought you might like to use the Ball of Foot Cushions. These are great for making your heels quieter and more comfortable.
2. High Heel Caps
A specific area that could be contributing to the noise is the heel. Some high heels are designed with a metal tip that makes a lot of noise when it hits a surface. Heel caps are rubber sleeves that fit around the bottom part of the heel.
The heel cap will, “soften the blow” so to speak and make your footsteps quieter. We really like these Heel Hunks because you can choose from 10 different cap sizes to suit heels of different shapes. They’re also affordable, so you don’t have to be worried about it breaking your bank account. But it also helps maintain the quality of your shoe and reduce the number of repairs you have to do on your heels.
3.Duct Tape
You probably never thought that someone would ever suggest putting duct tape on your shoes. It may not seem like a great idea, but it really helps to combat those noisy steps.
Before you use this method, make sure you clean the bottom of your shoes. Putting tape on a dirty surface won’t help the tape to stick.
So how do you use it? You’re going to need to wrap a few layers of tape on top of each other. With the sticky side facing up, place it on the bottom tip of each of your heels. The duct tape will muffle that clacking sound as well as give you your peace of mind.
We would suggest buying duct tape that matches the colour of your shoe the most, just to ensure that it’s really not noticeable. Also, make sure that you replace the tape on your shoes often. The more you wear your shoes with the same DIY tape muffler, the more likely it is that the tape will come off – possibly in public.
4.Rubber Soles
You might prefer using rubber soles over duct tape, but both will do the trick. We like the idea of using rubber soles to dampen out unwanted clacking because rubber is known for being great at absorbing noise.
The rubber soles we think would be best to use, come in a pack of 5, are easy to use and affordable. Since they help to promote traction, slipping shouldn’t be something you need to worry about.
If the rubber soles don’t fit perfectly on the bottom of your shoe, you can just cut them to the right size. Make sure you clean your shoes before use, for better stick.
5.Use Felt Fabric on the Bottom of Your Shoe
Felt fabric works similarly to rubber soles. Surprisingly, felt fabric is also a great shock absorber so it’ll help to fix a noisy shoe. But the difference between felt fabric and the rubber soles, is where the material is placed. The felt fabric is placed on the heel of the shoe instead of on the sole.
Cut out a smallish square of felt fabric. Put super glue on the heel and then place the fabric on the glue. Once its dried, you can cut off any fabric that’s not attached to the heel. It should help a lot to reduce the noise.
You can find felt fabric in any local fabric store, but you can also find it on amazon at a really cheap price.
6. Use Sandpaper on the Back of Your Shoes
The idea of scraping away at the back of your shoe is probably not a pleasant thought. But, if you’re always on your feet, nobody will really notice. Using sandpaper on the sole of your shoe, helps with traction. If you sand the sole of your shoes just a little bit, it’ll strengthen your heel’s grip and reduce noticeable sounds.
7. Foot Foam
Foot foam helps to reduce the impact of the noise you often hear coming from your heel. The foot foams work almost the same as a gel cushion. The foam is made from rubber, which as we’ve mentioned is a great shock absorber. You’ll just need to be careful to not walk on wet or slippery floors, the foam underneath your shoe can cause you to slip.
All you need to do is paste the foam on the shoe after peeling off the adhesive. It’s as simple as that!
How To Walk Quietly In Heels
You may notice that people who are used to wearing heels, don’t make as much noise when they walk. It’s true that your level of confidence and how you walk, matter.
If you’re fairly new to wearing heels or you just haven’t really paid much attention to how you should walk in them (like most of us have) then take a look at some of the things you can do to get the best results when you wear your heels.
- Walk in an Upright Position
Slouching can have a negative effect on how you walk in your heels, and it’ll make your steps heavier, and a lot louder. Try to walk in an upright position. It can be really challenging, but with practice you can definitely do it.
- Lead With Your Foot
Focus on leading each step with your foot and not your heel. If you lead with your heel, you’re putting too much pressure on the weaker part of your shoe. You shoe could buckle underneath you, which will cause noise and put you in danger of slipping.
Besides walking quietly in heels, improving your technique can prevent heel related injury.
Why are heels so loud?
Okay, so we know how to fix our noisy high heels, but what causes the problem in the first place? Here’s a few things we know about why high heels do what they do.
- Walking in Oversized Heels
We did talk about this earlier but wearing oversized heels is not going to contribute to quiet steps. Oversized heels amplify the amount of noise your shoe would normally make, because the lower half of your body needs to adapt to the size of the shoe and the fact that your foot doesn’t fit into it. Even if it means putting back those sought-after high heels, it’s going to be worth it in the long run.
Make sure you buy the right size heels.
- Worn Out Heel Tip
Remember when we spoke about how the sole of a heel is sometimes made with a metal tip? Well, if the sole of your heel becomes exposed, you’ll basically be walking on that metal tip.
Since metal makes a loud noise when it hits any hard surface, you can imagine that it also makes a racket when you’re walking on it, and the metal hits the floor every second or so.
- Heel Soles
When the sole of a heel is hard, it’ll make more noise than a heel sole that’s softer. You can test whether the sole of a heel is hard or not by pressing on it with your fingers. Try walking in them too.
How To Make Heels Quieter - What To Look Out for When You Want to Buy Heels
How you walk in your shoes is important. You may be thinking, “Well, yeah of course it’s important, I want to look good”, and we would agree that we want you to look great too. But how you walk in your shoes affects how much noise your shoes are going to make. What are we getting at?
Pain doesn’t help you to walk confidently and comfortably. High heels can be the greatest cause of foot pain. So, we’ve given you a few things to consider when you want to buy a new pair of high heels, that will help you to choose the most pain-free pair and help you combat those loud heel sounds.
- If possible, buy shoes that are made from suede or leather.
Manufacturers have designed most synthetic shoes with a stiffening agent applied to the heel that aids the heel in holding its shape. The problem is that this kind of shoe design causes blisters. Leather and suede shoes mold to the shape of your foot so they’re far more comfortable to wear. Even though you may still experience chaffing, especially when you first start wearing shoes, it will eventually fade away.
- Test Out the Shoe
You have to see whether you can actually walk in the shoe. Don’t do what most of us girls normally do, which is walk in the shoes for a few seconds on a carpeted floor. Test the shoes out for a good minute or so and on a tiled floor if possible. Just make sure to tell someone who works in the shop what you’re doing, in case they think you’re trying to make a “walk” for it in their shoes.
- Use Your Thumb to Determine If the Shoe Will Fit
Let’s be honest, sometimes we really want that pair of shoes, and we don’t care if it doesn’t fit. We fool ourselves into thinking that we can make it work, but its not realistic. Always make sure that there’s a thumb width worth of space from the front of your shoe to the end of big toe (or your longest toe). You’ll need to try the shoe on to use this method.
- Try to Do Your Shoe Shopping Towards the End of The Day
This may sound a little crazy, but your foot gets a little bit bigger throughout the day. Since you probably want to wear your high heels in the evenings, it would be good to shop for your heels towards the end of the day. It will help you to make sure that the shoe you decide to buy will be comfortable to walk in at all times of the day and it’ll reduce unwanted pain.
- Measure How Tall the Heel Is.
Different heel height can affect how comfortable it is to walk in the shoe. Here’s the different heel heights you’ll find and what it’ll mean for your feet.
- Two-inch heels
This heel is quite low so it’s not likely to cause a lot of pain. This is the kind of shoe you can walk in all day without repercussions. These kinds of shoes are more suitable for vintage looks but can easily be worn with any smart outfit especially if you find a shoe like this that has a pointed toe style.
- Three-inch heels
Comfortable to wear even after a few hours, you might enjoy wearing these kinds of heels. Whether you’re heading to a restaurant or working in the office, these heels are suitable for both occasions.
- Four-inch heels
These are the kind of heels commonly found in the stores. They’re more appropriate for an evening out or for if you’re going to a party. If you’re on your feet for hours on end in these, it’s probably going to hurt and affect the way you walk.
It will help to practice walking in these for about 2 days before you decide to wear them.
- Five-inch heels
These kinds of heels are the most difficult to walk in. If you really know how to walk in these shoes, you won’t hear the usual clacking that goes along with them. But, these shoes are not really comfortable to walk in, so you are most likely going to experience pain which will affect how noisy they’ll be at a later stage.
How To Prevent Your High Heels from Wearing Out
We know that noisy high heels can be the result of a worn-out heel, so it would be good to know how to prevent your heels from wearing out. Here’s what you can do:
- Don’t wear the same shoes all the time.
Rotate your shoes. If you keep wearing the same shoe day in and day out, it’s going to break sooner than later. If you have more than one pair of heels, mix things up. If you only have one pair of heels, try wearing a different style of shoe.
- Replace Heels with durable materials.
I know this means you have to spend money, but it is worth it. If you sense that the heel of your shoe has not been made from durable materials, you can have the heel replaced with something more durable. You’ll need to visit a cobbler.
So, we’ve seen just a few of the things you can do to quieten those high heel sounds. For most of us, the noise is unavoidable, but there is something you can do about it as we’ve seen in this article.
There’s plenty products you can buy to solve your noisy high heel problem. If you’re not sure which product to buy, test them all out and choose which one suits you best.
Don’t forget to think about the high heel you want to buy before you get it and to test whether it fits you. Walking comfortably in your heels is essential to making your heels quieter.