Brazilian shoe brand Melissa makes plastic shoes that smell like bubblegum. From their FAQ:
A few years ago, to add to the melissa experience, the decision was made to infuse all melissa shoes with a sweet bubblegum smell. The smell will not last forever – but it does remain for quite a few months and is one of the most talked about features of melissa. Our customers love it!
Shown above, two shoes from the Vivienne Westwood collection. On the left, the Lady Dragon shoe, about $150 at Zappos or Saks. On the right, a version for children, sorry I don't know the price. (quote via melissaaustralia.com.au, image on right via elle, with thanks to Jessica for the link!)
So I’ll constantly think “oh crap! i stepped in some gum”??
I guess! But beats smelling like plastic. I assume by the time the bubblegum scent has worn off, so has the plastic smell.
Oh gross. Foot odor + bubblegum. For some reason that’s more disgusting than foot odor alone — the way the scent of public bathroom + cherry-scented urinal puck is somehow far worse than the scent of public bathroom alone.
So I’m wasting five minutes before I have to go get my hair cut, and I find this. Bubblegum and plastic should never be used in the same sentence as shoes.
I had never heard of them, but after spending some time investigating, looks like these are REALLY popular. People collect them.
Second R.!
Already plastic+shoes alone shouldn’t be found in the same sentence.
That design is indeed very popular, but I must be getting to old to understand the coolness of it. (though admittedly I’ve seen those shoes on many women at lest 15 years older than me. Young at heart, they say!)
…And usually I do like quirky shoes: I’m a devoted chie mihara fan!
I don’t like plastic shoes either, but hey. These are better than most!
Starter heels for six year olds!
I don’t think the children’s shoes have heels, although of course impossible to tell from that shot.
True. I’m just thinking of when I was six years old, clomping around in Mom’s outsized clogs….
Does anyone remember the first wave of Jellies shoes (many moons ago)? There were not only sandals but high-heel pumps available. As a stupid college student, I bought a pair of pumps. I quickly found that there was nothing more disgusting than trying to walk in wobbly high heels (plastic! no structure!) in which your sweat-soaked feet slid around constantly, even squeaking and squelching. The bubblegum smell is not to combat the smell of plastic, but the smell of sweat. I can’t imagine forking over $150 to repeat the experience, plus bubblegum.
Um, yes. I owned a pair of those plastic pumps (as well as at least two pairs of the original lattice-y flats), in pearly white. I thought they were most lovely! Was the company called Grendha or something like that? They didn’t have a scent, in any case…!
I am remembering my best friends wedding and her stupid Cinderella fantasy! She wore clear pumps, ala glass slipper dreams. By the time she walked down the bridal path her feet were sweaty and slipping in the shoes. By the reception you could hear the squishing and see the sweat! It was so gross we were roaring with laughter, her feet stunk and were pruney from the sweat! She had to remove them to dance and she actually poured out liquid. We still laugh at that nasty image!
Oh how awful! Poor thing!
Hey, I loved those things! I had the ones that looked woven — two pairs, red and turquoise — as well as the high-heeled pumps in hot pink (of course). But the pièce de résistance was my pearlescent white Thierry Mugler jellies; they don’t fit anymore, but they were so cool that I saved them.
Oiy! as long as Nike doesn’t adopt this idea, I’m safe!
Although not a fan of bubble gum it’s got to be better than that strange petroleum odor that tends to cling to plastic shoes….which seem like they would be uncomfortably hot and sweaty anyhow.
I can’t walk into a Payless Shoe store without going into a chemical-induced sweat. Gadzooks! The plastic smell is so overwhelming.
as I have a few pairs of these I’ll say they don’t really smell like bubblegum, just kind of sweet. Way better than the usual plastic rubber smell!
I’m actually glad to hear that, as I can think of few fragrances as nauseating as bubblegum.
But still, plastic shoes…ech!
Good to know, thanks! Are they comfy?
They have a padded foot bed which is nice, the t-strap mary janes are a bit more comfy than the Lady Dragons you have up there ^
All shoes hurt my feet so it’s just the degree of hurt for me lol they’re not too hurty, but I’ve never worn them for an entire day.
Thanks!
Those are so cute! I would so wear those!
I´m really amused by this post, since i´m brazillian and melissas are as popular as havaianas around here. I can assure you that the “plastic” is more like structured rubber than jelly and the bubblegum scent is ok- but, of course, i´m used to it by now, to the point that i associate melissas with bubblegum in a heartbeat. I love the pop design and no, the baby shoes have no heel, of course.
I think they’re kind of cute. Different, a little bizarre, yes, but cute. Then again, I like wearing really outrageous shoes sometimes. I had to restrain myself in Harajuku. The rest of my wardrobe is usually black so I like to spice things up with my heels, however the bubblegum scent is a bit disconcerting.
Now to convince myself that I don’t need the buy a pair for the experience or rather the ‘enrichment’.
Hi–I wore these as my wedding shoes, and gave flats to my bridesmaids as part of their gift. They smell really nice, and quite light. It isn’t bubblegum, but just a sweetish scent, and they are very comfy and well structured. The wedding was outdoors, on the farm I grew up on, and these were the perfect, hose-off, dance all night heel. I did change into the sparkly silver flat after a while, but those are cute too! maybe Australian bubblegum is not as sweet smelling. I like them a lot.
I’m 50, and I love the cute shoes!!!
I wonder, in the peep-toes if you could blow a bubble?
They make heels for infants they are called heelarious http://www.heelarious.com
Melissa shoes have a high status here in Brazil. In the past they were really just plastic cheap shoes. Today, they aren’t like this anymore. They cost in general more than 50 dollars and you have a lot of different models in different colors and with different materials too.
And the smell is good, not so different from the opening of a mass fruity floral. The melissa fans like so much the smell of it that the brand has issued a fragrance that tries to reproduce the smell of a Melissa shoe. I have sampled the fragrance, the fragrance has a strange plastic + passionfruit bubblegum smell that develops to a sheer floral.
The fragrance website:
http://www.melissa.com.br/perfume/
A picture of the bottle:
http://justheartit.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/melissa_perfume_thumb.jpg
That’s a great looking bottle!
I haven’t had a chance to visit Brazil yet, but it always sounds like a place where dangerously cheesy ideas like plastic + bubblegum scent + shoes turn into wonderful, stylish fun. Viva Brazil, and much love for NST’s real-time exchange of insights from around the globe!
Cute, but certainly a “stand alone” statement. I’d wear them with this spaghetti-strapped, short, black velvet dress I own. Maybe with some big, round, plastic earring studs…and that’s it. I love quirky accessories on adults but the “baby doll” fascination so many designers had this Spring was just…too much. The only thing more disturbing than a 12 year-old dressed like “Lolita” is a grown woman dressed like her.
Great for foot fetishists with halitosis I imagine…
I have 5 pairs of Melissa shoes. They’re insanely comfy and the bubblegum smell is quite subtle IMHO. They’re well ventilated so the recycled plastic isn’t as sweat inducing as you’d think. I’ll not hear a bad word about them