Stiletto Science

01 Sep 2004

Stiletto Science

Re: Brian Hughes (MBA 1979)

Topics: Business Ventures-Business Startups Competency and Skills-Experience and Expertise Society-Culture

MIT grad Brian Hughes (MBA ’79) is bringing technology to bear on what may result in a giant step forward for womankind. Imagine, gushed the Austin, Texas, American-Statesman (July 8, 2004), a high-heeled shoe “so cozy you can wear it all day, dance all night, and go to sleep without throbbing feet.” Or, as Hughes described it, “A shoe you can think in.”

Hughes is chairman of HBN Shoe, which owns Insolia, a biomechanically correct design that’s built into a heeled shoe and can’t be seen when the shoe is being worn. Nordstrom is currently the only retailer that sells Insolia shoes, under the Amalfi brand.

“I’ve run a rocket company, I’ve built transatlantic fiber cable,” said Hughes. “But if I go to a cocktail party and say, ‘Oh, I’m a CEO of a rocket company,’ after all the rocket scientist jokes are done, there’s not much people really want to talk about. But now I walk into a cocktail party, and half the people in the room are fascinated by what I’m doing.”

Featured Alumni

Brian Hughes

MBA 1979

Featured Alumni

Brian Hughes

MBA 1979

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