Style Tips by Big Rob

10 tips for successful height addition

elevator loafers

There is so little actual advice on adding height that it’s easy to make mistakes or make it difficult for yourself. My advice over the months has always tried to give you detail of techniques and strategies. Here are some pretty basic tips with a few words explanation. Read more

The height of summer

If you either live in a hot climate, or in a climate like much of the US, UK and Europe where we look forward to a few months (or few days!) hot weather every year, the hot weather poses some challenges to your height addition. There is no doubt about this. If you do not live in a hot climate all the time, you have to think about compromise on height addition just a little bit more than usual, especially during the day. Here are a few thoughts from someone who has added height for 17 summers… Read more

Exploding the myth of set and low limits in height addition

elevator chelsea boots

On a site that occasionally refers to elevators, I have recently been reading the kinda daft stuff from comments about elevators that makes clear the writers have never worn them, and just have a bit of a downer on height addition. In particular recently I have seen the occasional comment about it being “impossible” to wear elevators higher than a couple of inches, and the usual “everyone can tell”. Clearly mixing up lifts with elevators and not understanding the subject at all. Read more

Detection & Security Making sure no-one knows Part 2

elevator dress shoes

So OK I wrote last time about the general principles of discretion and detection and what you yourself feel about it. Yep, in an ideal world all guys wanna be 15cm/6” taller and for no-one to know! That’s really it – but the task of getting there (or part of the way there) is limited by practicalities. Read more

How high would you go

elevated shoes

A few weeks ago I asked ‘how high CAN you go?’ which was a series of suggestions of how high imho you should go dependent on different factors. But this is a different one. It assumes that you go high already and from time to time think “hmmm could I get another inch – or so!” If the options were available that looked cool, how high WOULD you go if you knew that it was no more detectable than wearing boots that are already the higher elevators. Specially if you are already up there with the 4″ or 5″ styles, and it was working for you. Read more

The “short” answer

elevated shoes short

One question I often get (and think about myself quite a bit) is based on wearing elevators with shorts. In fact it seems to me that guys ask slightly different questions but in the end really want to know one thing – ‘bearing in mind they are more exposed, what can I get away with in terms of height addition in my footwear when I want to wear shorts?’ Often guys fear suddenly going from days and nights wearing 3” or 4” elevators and suddenly BANG – down flat in Converse or Vans. “Aaaargh, suddenly I look SHORT”. And they do not want to stop wearing shorts even if it is just occasionally. Read more

Who do you tell?

elevated sneakers

Who do you tell you are adding height? The simple answer to that really IS “no-one”. There is the old saying: “If you tell one person, you have told the world” and when it comes to personal things, people love to gossip even more. The problem is that gossip about people’s personal lives and appearance seems irresistible. But of course set against all that is the fact that many people are not good at discretion or polite concealment – there is a general desire to tell people everything about themselves (on social media etc), which is probably every bit as unhealthy as wanting to hide everything. But unless you are that rare kind of guy who is not bothered that people know he adds height (“I bought some lovely 4” elevators, they make me look really tall” – I have never met one of these guys yet, btw), then I have some rules for you as to how to keep it real while making sure that no-one ever knows. So I start from the perspective of probably almost every guy that has added height and/or bought a pair of elevators – I want to make myself seem taller but at the same time not to look like I am trying to. I also frankly pretty much dread anyone actually knowing or even guessing.  Read more

The wrong (or right) trousers to wear with Elevator Shoes

tall men shoes rivoli

One of the practical issues when you wear elevators is that they DO have some impact on the type of pants or jeans you might wear. It is not as great an impact as you might think (unless you are going for 4” or 5” elevators) but there are some general lessons you need to understand, specially if you haven’t really done much height addition before. Read more

Who can go for the maximum Height

bespoke elevator shoes

If most of us are honest, we would all like to just wake up and be ‘several inches’ taller. You would be amazed at the contacts I have who are already over 6’ and want to be several inches taller. I don’t think for anyone it is a specific figure, and when guys try to put a figure on it, they often end up with a kind of figure they can end up disagreeing with: one friend who is 5’7” will say that he just wants to be “a couple of inches taller”. But if you then say “so you would not like to be 6’ tall in an ideal world?”, he is, like, “well, no, but maybe yes, but how can I anyway?”. Read more

Adding height for formal occasions – some thoughts

bridegrooms elevator shoes

I recently went to a wedding and it got me thinking about the limits on height addition in more formal situations. Really, it’s simply another of those lifestyle limitations I have mentioned before, and if you have to dress very formally a lot then you have to think carefully right from the start about the level of extra height you are going to try to add on a regular basis. However, we probably all have to cope with occasional situations where the limitations mean we can achieve less by way of extra height than we normally do. Read more