Map: The states where womens heels are the highest

Many women have conflicting attitudes toward high heels. Some see them as a beautiful fashion accessory, and others as a cruel and unusual punishment. But the decision to wear heels often comes down to two considerations: Fashion and terrain. These things differ a lot around the U.S., and so does the average heel height for women, as this map by shopping site Gilt shows.

Gilt’s data analysts created the map while investigating regional fashion preferences. They first tried mapping the most popular colors for dresses around the U.S., but quickly found that black “is still the new black” in every part of the country. But the data on women’s average heel height, based on shoes purchased between January 2013 and June 2014 on the Gilt site, showed some more interesting regional variations.

In more rural states like Kansas, Nebraska and Maine, heels are usually low for a practical reason: There isn’t a lot of pavement around. In other states, like Washington and Oregon, heels are likely lower because of the more laid-back local style. But in places like Las Vegas, Miami and Puerto Rico, where both pavement and fashionistas abound, heels are at their highest.

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The data might seem a little frivolous, but it actually has an important business use. The research is part of Gilt’s efforts to use machine learning and predictive modeling techniques to predict what fashion products will sell best in various parts of the country.

The rise of online retailing has given companies a wealth of information about consumer demands, and more retail companies are now using big data to predict upcoming fashion trends, including the most popular colors, cuts and fabrics, allowing them to design, manufacture and ship products more effectively.

In a report in April, Google showed how it is analyzing searches and geographic data to predict fashion trends. The search company predicted the rise of jogger pants, tulle skirts and midi skirts for spring, and the demise of peplums, skinny jeans, string bikinis, normcore fashion and the weird phenomenon that is “zoo jeans.”

Whether it’s finally pulling those zoo jeans out of the lion cage or sending sensible shoes to Kansas, big data is poised to help the fashion industry make big gains in meeting consumer demand.

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