We don’t talk much about age and adding height. But age makes a very big difference in how you go about adding height – the way you do it and the various limitations are greater at some ages than other.
Lifestyle is a key to making the most of adding height and understanding how far you can go. And age is very much a part of the whole lifestyle thing. How you are at 16 is entirely different to how you are at 66. Whether it’s fashion, style, job, homelife, the age factor is considerable and it’s worth looking at some general rules about age and adding height. In this first of four articles on age I am going to focus on younger guys. That is 15 to 29 (broadly!)
I get almost half of my e-mails about how to add height from younger guys (under 30). Almost without fail they are motivated by other guys who are taller than them, and they are looking for a quick way of adding inches. Younger guys also have a totally different perspective on what is ‘tall’ in comparison with those over 50. Remarkably so.
One big thing about young guys is that their lives are going through major changes (and are going to go through more!) – they might be playing football today but the day after the day after tomorrow they might have a couple of kids and be participants in sport only on the couch. But maybe not. Changes occur and alter lives dramatically. And this affects adding height.
If you are young and set out to add height, you have to also accept that your life is often not solely run by you. Playing sport, taking part in school activities, family issues. All make for a situation where adding a large amount of height is probably just not feasible other than maybe occasionally. But in an odd twist, it is younger guys who are possibly most keen to be taller. And today they want to be taller than ever. Just look on tik tok at all the young lads parading their 2m+ heights and competing with each other.
Young guys who get in touch with me have the greatest determination and interest in adding height. But I am also aware that almost anything might blow them off course. Totally understandable. Tomorrow their interest might focus elsewhere.
So although I am writing this on a site for elevator shoes, I nonetheless say that if the age at which you start adding height is in your mid to late teens, then stick to the kind of fashion footwear you go for and use lifts to get the hang of it. And not too many or it will be very uncomfortable. Or possibly buy very low elevators. The extra inch or two will give you an idea as to whether it is for you, and whether your lifestyle can cope with even just that. Low level height increasing shoes are better but you know, for many lads the cost is just not a starter. If it IS, the good for you and go for it. Firstly however you do it, this low level of height addition will be undetectable even when you take your shoes off, and secondly it is not too much to have to conceal.
And the need for concealment is often the difficulty with starting young. There is just NO point in letting everyone know in unguarded moments that you have added height. Tell one person and you have told the world. And when you are young there are more unguarded moments than when you are older! Having people generally know makes it fairly pointless. When I advise younger guys, it’s always the thing I try to stress – do not do something that you think you might have to explain (or feel you have to). No point. You have years – go at it slowly.
The stuff you are doing might change and so adding a lot of height via elevator shoes might just not be for you. But in general, once you add that first inch or two, you tend to become hooked!
This is, in fact, what I did: I started with a small amount of lifts at about 15 and once I had got the hang of it and realised that adding height did not compromise my lifestyle I went further. When I was 18 there were no good elevators, but had there been, I would have bought some. Fashions as they were allowed for basically the max you could get into your shoes by way of lifts. And then in my mid 20s I went on to elevators.
So if you are a mid teen, you may start with a few lifts, but you can quickly now graduate to elevators. I still suggest just a few inches if you are, say, 18. But I DO know of late teens who have bought 6” elevator boots – they are always well into it, and have settled into the pattern, their lifestyle can accommodate it and they are not going to be compromised.
In your 20s, you get to know what your lifestyle might be and how you can fit adding height into it – it might be that you can add a lot (as happened with me, I have always worked in clubs and bars), or that (say) your work means you have to wear flatter looking shoes and the very max you can add is 4”, possibly having to settle for 3”. I myself wear a 4” pair of Ischia boots which have a brogue or wingtip look if I have to wear more formal pants or even a suit. I cannot wear my 6” boots with a suit – it only looks cool when that kinda style is a trend.
But of course if you are working in some less formal environment where casual is the rule, then really the sky is your limit, and I have many contacts who routinely wear 6” elevator boots at work with jeans and have reached that situation in their early 20s.
The best advice on adding height you guys 15 to 29 is to take it carefully, start low, constantly keep in mind what your lifestyle requires and understand the need to fit in how far you can add height with your career choice and outside interests. It may be that your 20s is a time when you have to stick to 3” or 4”, but that later you can go further. Or you can wear the lower ones for work but go to a max at night when you are out.
Next time I am going to look at height addition for guys from late 20s to early 40s.
