Camileon adjustable heels: What will they think of next?

I was woken by a call from the BBC in London first thing this morning asking if I would go on air to talk about these shoes. (The Beeb's radio researchers are obsessed by shoes.) Made by a company called CAMiLEON (sic), their USP is a foldable heel which allows the wearer to adjust the heel height from 3 to 1 inches.

At a price point approaching $300 they are putting themselves in the firmly in the designer shoe bracket, albeit at the lower end. That's a lot of money for a hideous shoe. I'm presuming the pricing covers the R & D, rather than a good designer judging by the styles available so far. And, with the heel folded away, they all look staggeringly ugly anyway. They do seem utterly pointless: three inches is barely a heel in my or any other fashion loving woman's book - the kind of woman who would drop $300 on a pair of shoes. It's low enough to walk blocks in or run screaming into the street for a cab. It is not high enough to require a pair of flats in your bag for emergencies, therefore it's not high enough to require a patented folding heel arrangement.

If you do wish to gaze at more of these fashion freaks, they are to be found at Zappos