A shoe with a thick sole beneath the forefoot, sometimes combined with a raised heel.
A platform thickens the sole beneath the forefoot. Christian Louboutin states its height apart from the heel’s, setting its Loubi Queen Alta sandal on a 150 mm stiletto heel with a 50 mm platform sole, and its Cora sandal on a 100 mm block heel with a 15 mm platform.
Museum pieces show how platforms are built. The V&A holds a Salvatore Ferragamo sandal of 1938 whose platform sole and heel are layers of cork covered with colored suede, a Christian Louboutin sandal of 1995 with a Lucite resin platform sole, and Italian chopines of 1600 to 1620 on a carved wood platform covered with silk velvet.
A platform is not a wedge heel. The Bata Shoe Museum describes a wedge as filling the space between heel and sole; a platform can sit in front of a separate heel. The two meet in the platform wedge, as on Roger Vivier shoes of 1944 to 1945 at the Museum at FIT.
In job listings
In listings, platform most often means software, as in a data platform. The shoe sense belongs to footwear development and production roles, where technicians develop shoe structures, prototypes and samples and work with outside sole makers. See current footwear technician roles.
