For several seasons now, the heels available in stores have been predominantly at one of two extremes: either flat or in excess of three inches. There is an ongoing abundance of ankle breaking and foot distorting high, high heels in stores and no stopping the trend.

Things look different on the street. During the day I mostly see women putting flats and low heels though their paces. There are far fewer super high heels. Understandably, the high heels are more popular at night, but for the most part, they are a rare daytime phenomenon. Even in cities like NY, Paris, London and Hong Kong, you will occasionally see super high heels during the day, but flats and lower heels are definitely more common.

So who’s wearing these sky scraping heels? It’s a mystery. They must be selling at retail because buyers wouldn’t be putting them into stores every season if women weren’t purchasing them. But the retail supply of super high heels does not seem to reflect what’s being worn in the real world.

Perhaps women purchase sky scraping heels for night time use only. Perhaps they swap out their comfortable shoes for heels when they get to the office. Perhaps there’s an epidemic of four inch heeled closet orphans. What’s it like in your neck of the woods? Can you solve the mystery of the missing heels?