Straight-edged Pumps ID Page

Straight-Edged pumps have the most colour variations of all the Jem shoes. First let's make sure you really have Hasbro Jem-issued shoes. Assuming they actually fit Jem, if they have any of the qualities here, then follow the appropriate links to knock-off Jem shoes:

 If the shoes have two little holes in the soles of the shoe, they belong to the Jewel line by Totsy.

If your shoes are sort of a dull, swirly metallic grey, gold or are pearly, they belong to Jem-sized fashion packs from Sears.

If your shoes have a star stamped on them, then they are from Creata Rock Star fashions.

Preamble
Matching Jem shoes to the correct outfit is an exhausting endeavor. Way back, nearly 20 years ago when I started this guide, it was supposed that each fashion and/or doll came with a specific, correct shoe style and colour and that was that. Then collectors got to talking and discovering that, for example, Roxy quite often came with magenta shoes, not yellow ones, often enough to not just be a random screw up at the factory. We also started to notice, among two seemingly identical NRFB fashions - like Encore, say- when opened and the shoes placed side by side, dagnabit! One pair was noticeably brighter than the other, and had much thicker, sturdier plastic. It appeared to be related to different runs or places of manufacture. The general consensus at the time was that Europeans got different stuff than the Americans and Canadians. It was a theory that generally held water, but then there were people opening NRFB US-issue things, and getting "Euro" Roxy and her shoes, not the "correct" American yellow ones. Then some extremely detail-obsessed fans stumbled upon these markings that no one really paid much attention to before, the "Mysterious H" numbers. So we have some new theories.
The consensus seems to be that the earlier fashions and dolls were produced in greater numbers to better accommodate the European market, which necessitated more than one "run" of a specific fashion or doll. These runs were notated on the boxes with an "H" number somewhere near the copyright information on most boxes. For whatever reason, European dolls (those in Italian, French, Dutch etc. packaging) got H32 dolls either exclusively or primarily which led to them being referred to as "Euro" dolls despite also being available in Canada and the US. 
Another trait that is related to the H numbers, is the thin-Sided vs. thick-sided versions of shoes. The designations are pretty self-explanatory - the thick sided shoes are thicker and a bit heavier with noticeably curved and smooth insides. The thin-sided shoes are, well, thinner :) relatively speaking. The very thinnest straight-sided shoes however, are the H32 or "Euro" shoes; the most obvious differences are that they are noticeably shinier and when dropped or shaken against each other, make a more brittle, higher pitched sound. (Yes, people do this!). So far, with a few exceptions, H22-marked fashions come with thick-sided shoes, and H44s with the thin sided (and in the case of 2nd Year Flip Sides, the "Euro" mold), and H32 with the "Euro" but if history has taught me anything about Jem shoes, it's not to make too many assumptions! There are still differences being found among the numbers printed inside the shoes, and variance among the actual cast shape of the shoes. More on that as research continues! ;)
Lastly there are also home-made shoes made of casting resin out there as well, which tend to be made of non-Hasbro colours and are usually easy to spot to the average collector

Now for the Jem shoes!  We'll start with the metallic/chromed plastic shoes as there were only two colours, and are the easiest to identify.
1) Metallic


Chrome Pink, only came with
The pink shade can vary somewhat. Among my dolls, the Made in China (H22) ones got the thick edged shoes shown left. If you don't see the thin/thick edge difference, look at the inside of the shoes and see how curved and smooth it looks compared to the Hong Kong thin shoes on the right. Sometimes it is possible to see through the Hong Kong shoes if you hold them in front of a light. The thin edged ones tend to be paler pink than the thick edged.

Mexican and Spanish Jem/Jerrica dolls also came with chromed pink straight edged shoes. The Mexican shoes usually look crusty, flawed or deep red in colour. In my case, the shoes that came with my Spanish made doll didn't appear any different than a regular US-issued doll.


Gold, only came with
Shown left is the thick-sided H-44 version. As there is only one pair of gold straight-edged shoes, they are easily identifiable, but they can vary somewhat in colour. There is also a thin-edged version of these shoes. See Liz's photo here of the various colour differences and thin vs thick sided shoes. 

2) Opaque There are a few different ways to identify these Jem shoes, firstly and most importantly is colour, which is how the shoes will be listed below. Secondly is the thin and thick sided versions, which is explained better up here. We are talking about pretty minute colour differences in many cases, and every scanner/digicam/monitor is going to read them differently, so it's pretty much impossible to give you a completely objective colour guide here, but I'm doing my best to try!
*Not the Mexican dolls, which were made under license by Juguetes Con Vida, and not Spanish dolls, which were made by MB Espaņa. These companies produced very noticeably different and unique Jem shoes.


Pale pink to pale lavender, only came with
See the differences between the "Euro" (H32) and US issued (H44) 1st Ed. Aja doll's shoes. Regardless of country-of-issue, they will always be paler than 1st Edition Shana's shoes.

Lavender, only came with
So far I've seen thin-sided shoes (H-44, top photo), and "Euro" style thinner-edged and shinier (H-32, lower photo). Both are about the same colour and not easily confused with any other Jem shoes.

Purple, came with the following fashions
  • City Lights & We're Off and Running (thick sided), have the same shade. There is a thin sided version of City Lights that is even lighter than these. See Liz's photo of the two together.
  • Twilight in Paris have thick sided (from H-44 card) and thin sided (presumably from H-22 card) versions. Thick sided version is plum-toned. Thin sided version is the darkest of the purple Jem shoes
  • Electric Chords is another sticky one. The ones that seem to definitely belong are thick sided with a very large letter (backwards, A thru D found so far) printed inside the sole. At least a few loose EC fashions have come with thin sided shoes that don't appear to match anything else, it is questionable as to where they belong in the Jem purple shoes universe!

Red Violet,
Very easily confusable, these shades are difficult to tell apart unless you actually own all of them in person, unfortunately! See Liz Pemberton's excellent guide for more information on identifying this confusing shade of Jem shoe!
  • 1st Edition Kimber usually came with a dusty rose shade which is opaque. I've seen it vary in intensity, the one in the photo is on the darker/deeper side. It has thin sides. 
  • Music In The Air is very similar to Kimber, it's a bit darker and more purple toned. This fashion likely was produced in 3 runs or more. I do not know if there are tangible differences between the shoes in this shade. It seems likely there is a thick sided version of these shoes out there. This one has thin sides. It is opaque.
  • We Can Change It I have She Makes an Impression's shoe shown here in the photo as it's very similar in shade (I don't own the actual WCCI shoe), but WCCI's is straight-edged and thin sided. See Liz Pemberton's excellent guide for more information.
  • Stormer's shoes have a commonality in that they are very smooth and curvy inside compared to all other shoes of this shade and have a translucent quality to them. My 1st Year H22/Made in China Stormer came with quite dark shoes. I've seen many other loose Stormers with a paler (even more see-through) shade. 
  • Roxy ("Euro"/H32 version only), came with a near purple shade which is the darkest of them all. It has very thin sides and is also a bit translucent.

More red-pinks,
In this photo you can see the 1st Edition Kimber H-32 or "Euro"/ball-wristed doll shoe. The mold has a much more defined heel and the plastic is very thin and brittle sounding. 
Magenta pink, only came with

24 Carat Sound

Edges are thick. The inner sole has a large backwards letter (A thru D) that no other dark pink shoe has, as far as I know.

Fluorescent Pink
So far I've seen three fairly distinct shades - very vibrant true pink with thin sides, came with Like A Dream (both H44, in US and Euro packaging). A tiny bit cooler/bluer pink, also with thin sides came with Command Performance & at least some 1st Edition Kimbers (both in H44 packaging). Command Performance (H22 package with the lace tights variant) came in a very similar colour but with thick sides

Raspberry Pink, thick sides. Came with the following fashions
Pink with a warm, orangey tone. I own all of these fashions NRFB, and as far as I can tell the same colour shoes came with them. There is a thin Award Night shoe for sure, not sure on the other fashions. Loose, I have seen lots of slight differences in this shade, so there are still variations out there that need further identification.

Orange  
I know of three so far, of which two are shown left. A paler orange with thick sides came with Permanent Wave, 1st Year (H22 card). My Permanent Wave (1st year, H44 card) came with darker shoes - which appear to be the same shade as the ones I got with Lightnin' Strikes - the plastic bubble tends to darken the colour in photographs, but I assure you they look the same in person! There is also another Lightnin' Strikes variation not shown here, which is also dark orange in the "Euro" shoe mold.

Yellow-Orange only came with
The thin sided shoes came with the regular fishnet tights (sold on an H44 card). The thick sided shoes are a bit rarer, and came with the H22 fashion, which also had lace tights. As you can see there are slight colour differences but they are still different enough from all other yellow shoes as to be identifiable as DTNA shoes.

Yellow
So far I know of 5 shades, only 4 are shown here. Encore came with the most pure yellow colour, the H44 fashion came with thin sides, the H22 thick. Roxy's 1st edition shoes are a butter yellow, they look a little more vibrant ion this photo than they really are. Second Edition Roxys came with fluorescent yellow. Both have thick sides. Not shown is the "euro" mold Stormer shoes, which are also fluorescent yellow. Those are a lot thinner and shinier than Roxy's shoes.

Green
There are two shades of green. The lighter pea green shoes came with Friend or Stranger. The deeper hued green shoes came with Gimme Gimme Gimme. Both have thick sides. My Friend or Stranger shoes are fairly unique in that they have a number stamped in the arch of the sole. These numbers are normally found in the toe area. 

Aqua
This is likely the easiest straight sided shoe to ID and find, the Original Jem/Jerrica pumps. 
The shoes can vary, my China H22 doll came with thick sided shoes shown left, my Hong Kong one came with thinner ones. Note that the thick edged ones are also somewhat duller/yellower tinged.

Dark Aqua
The shade is nearly identical but distinguishable. There Ain't Nobody Better comes with thick sided shoes. Running like the Wind comes in the "euro" shoe style. It does seem possible that there is a non-Euro Running Like The Wind shoe, since most of the 2nd Year Flip Side fashions have had variations in the shoe type, but it hasn't been discovered or identified yet. 

White only came with
As with other fashions, the H44 fashion came with thin sided shoes, the H22 with thick sided. I do not yet know of differences related to the year of issue but really... how much different can white straight sided pumps get? ;)

Gunmetal Grey only came with
They are the only shoes with a pearly sheen to them. There are probably three different versions, so far I have catalogued two. To the left is the H32, or "Euro" Pizzazz shoe, I got mine with a Dutch doll. On the right I got with a 2nd Edition Pizzazz, it has thick sides. My guess is that there is a thin sided shoe that would have come with the H22 1st Edition dolls.
Credits: Thanks to Thumper for the photo of the Creata shoes. Thanks to Glamour to Divaz for letting me photograph the H32 Shana shoes. Special thanks to Liz Pemberton who has spent countless sleepless nights trying to figure out the Jem shoe mystery and is