Meet The World's Tallest High Heel

If you think five inches is a towering heel height, you may suffer from vertigo when gazing at the world's tallest pair. Jill Martin and Kenneth Cole have created the world's tallest heeled shoe, announces Women's Wear Daily, and the monstrosity made its debut on The Today Show Thursday morning. Hold on to your Nikes, sneaker-lovers, because these lofty heels are a shocking six feet and two inches in height. The selected design? Kenneth Cole's Otto Polished-Leather Lug-Sole Bootie, which features an inky black exterior, gritty white soles, and a buckled ankle strap. I suspect the $225 cost of the regularly sized version of the shoe covered a mere fraction of its six-foot rendition.

400 hours and five and a half pelts factored into the creation of the behemoth, the production of which was headquartered at Izquierdo Studio. Disbelievers of the initiative and those intrigued by a heel of such stature can take a gander at the shoe at New York City's Lord & Taylor flagship, though be forewarned: the shoe isn't for purchase.

Not only is the feat one of artistic significance, it is also a philanthropic endeavor. Cole has generously offered to donate $5 from each pair of kicks sold today until 6 pm Friday to the Garden of Dreams Foundation, so rev up your web browser and start purchasing; the foundation gives poverty-stricken and at-risk youths a chance to indulge in sporting events, entertainment, and other programs. As Cole wryly explained to Women's Wear Daily,

My career as a designer has literally reached a new height, and as one might assume, breaking a Guinness World Record is no small feet.

In honor of the shoe's debut, Kenneth Cole Productions' Instagram account has created a series of nine puzzle piece-like images of the shoe which, united, create a complete image of the work. The designer's own Instagram feed features several scale images of the shoe, placing it against the original heel and a Today Show assistant for comparison. Due to its charitable facet, perhaps the shoe will give rise to a new idiom: the bigger the heel, the bigger the heart.

Images: kennethcole/Instagram