Many years ago while researching the disappearing tradition of Huarache footwear in Mexico, I imagined a future, where only old people still played traditional sport and sport shoes/sneakers no longer had the same appeal as today. Just as in Mexico mostly old men were still making Huaraches and most people did not like them enough to wear over sneakers. Here is this link to that post.
Since “change is the only constant”, without going as far as to say that young people will stop playing sport, it’s not so unlikely that one day people will be less interested in wearing sport inspired shoes. Especially if they become more interested and influenced by other things, just as people were 100, 200, 300 years ago.
All generations have different interests and tastes, just like there was a time when people became less interested in wearing leather shoes. Although our predisposition towards favouring shifting baselines often prevents us from a greater awareness of change and how big it can be.
So what will replace sport as the leading influence of mainstream footwear design?
2, or 3 years ago I posted about how footwear would/could become digitalised, how Nike was investing in VR like Roblox and Animation companies, and how the computer games industry was bigger than the music and film industry combined.
Ultimately it’s probably not surprising considering how large the digital and video games industry are, their profitability and influence, and how many children, and soon to be teenage core Nike customers already spend time in VR (where they already purchase digital products), or playing video games (instead of sport) .
Last week, almost 1 full 24 month creation/development cycle later, Nike introduced their 2024 Olympic kits and AI designed footwear in a way that further suggests this transition to a disrupting digitalised footwear and fashion alternative.
From the Nike Athletes posing in ways which reminded of a video game select screen.
I was expecting at least wearable shoes from the world’s N.1 shoe company, anything less seems more like corporate art, or a student project.
However after a moment for it to sink in, I wonder if their unwearable concepts could they be Nike’s stepping stones for a future lived in VR, or AR? Because initially it may be necessary to bridge the gap for many older customers that are not as immersed in VR, by offering similar physical alternatives. In this massive redefining leap, maybe not so dissimilar from how music went from CD’s to Streaming.
Shoe designs that don’t need to be physically wearable, because they are meant to be worn in VR and AR. Their physical alternatives, accessories that will serve as ornaments and be like dolls/toys that you can buy and keep on your shelves, as a collectible if you really like them.
Despite this week’s cries of sexist apparel and unwearable designs, maybe Nike are further ahead in digitalising footwear and traditional product than we all imagine?
Need more evidence, wait to watch the Euro 2024 football tournament and probably also the Olympics, filmed with mobile 90m dynamic Filou Speedcam “Railcams” by PMT in the style of a EA Football video game.
I just came across an old photo from 2004 when we were developing the FW2005 collection at Pony. For some reason I can’t find other sample photos (especially with cables) although there were many. It could be because my computer hard drive broke not long after.
I had found some kevlar cables for speed lacing, in a lace catalog. At that time Salomon had just released for SS2004, their incredible Salomon Fusion Dry and Symbio (for Women) soft shell shoes.
I though that instead, the kevlar cables could be used to create better and lighter support to court shoes, specifically basketball and tennis.
At first it seemed the cables could be stitched between upper and lining, like in this early sketch below. Then maybe woven through holes in the upper?
I think this proto below was a tennis shoe.
In the end the protos with cables looked quite boring, maybe because of the regular layout? But we were designing so many styles and colourways at Pony and in such a short time, that our heads were spinning and there was no time to experiment with different variants and samples.
Pony had just been bough by GBMI and we had little to no performance footwear foundations to build on either, which is probably why the performance shoe designs ended up looking amateurish, despite that this new technology was very interesting and innovative.
Much later in 2008 Nike officially introduced Dymanic Flywire and I believe that they also able patented it. As you would expect, Nike did a much better job and cables are still being used successfully by them to this day, 16 years later.
I think it works particularly well on the Nike Winflo 5 from 2018.
As a footwear designer I’m also interested in working to a holistic Design philosophy that includes other fundamental design deliverables such as positive social engineering and environmental compatibility. And one of my professional goals is to become more conscious and aware.
My awareness has lead me to believe that we all need to change the way we see design and products as just things that exist to benefit us in the short term as consumers, and that designers can play a key role in encouraging positive social change by making thoughtful choices.
“Design creates culture – Culture shapes values – Values shape the Future.” Robert L. Peters
We often ignore that all the products we use also exist in an equally important past and a future without us. They are created through great efforts by someone else and by relocating and processing natural resources somewhere in the world affecting other people and ecosystems. And their end life also can impact other people and ecosystems of which we usually have little interest in. But just as we have learned to not objectify other people and nature for our temporary benefit, as paradoxical as it sounds we should also learn not objectify products either.
To my surprise it’s almost 10 years ago today that I wrote a post about The “Objectification of Product and it’s Social, Environmental Threats“. I believe that perceiving anything just as an object for our personal use, with no interest in their other qualities/factors that don’t benefit us is short sighted, superficial and in the long term detrimental to our social and environmental health.
I was recently very lucky to design a wonderful example of footwear, created with such positive, past, present and future qualities/factors in mind.
Although at first glance the Wildling Lotus Design has one the easiest and simplest aesthetics and constructions, as a footwear solution its purpose is not just to look new, but to be more meaningful, not just easier to make, or friendlier to nature, but also rooted in family and community.
Functionally the barefoot shoe last will offer the healthiest fit, and the 100% wool upper (which is increasingly rare in footwear) is naturally thermoregulating. The felt is naturally moulded by washing and drying without the use of glued internal reinforcements, no thermoforming plastic fibres are added either and the lanolin in the wool will naturally soften your skin. But both the end product and design were intended to be even more meaningful and holistic than the now mandatory aesthetic, function and eco-friendliness deliverables.
For example a product and design thinking should not just be about how a design used and the customer who uses it, but also about who makes it and how it’s made, and who disposes it and how it’s disposed, re-used, or recycled. The Sustainability in Circularity is not just about the product, but also all who share and are affected by it, all the people and the community that is involved and of course in a few cases animals too.
For example before the Wildling Lotus is used, the wool is sheared from German sheep that are used for land conservation instead of milk, or meat. And in this post I would also like to share the unique way and environment where the Wildling Lotus is made which is equally fascinating.
Unlike traditional design posts, instead of development sketches and inspiration, here I would like to share some images of the production which make the Wildling Lotus so special.
These photos are from a recent development trip to the 101 year old factory where the Wildling Lotus is made, in the middle of Finland, surrounded by a dizzying ocean of rippling green as far as the eye can see.
Naturally the original factory building is no longer in use, but its moving to see the that it’s still preserved and cared for. It’s such a rare and touching thing to feel connected to history through your work.
There are probably less than a handful of Felt Moulding Footwear Factories left in Europe and I feel very lucky to have worked with one of them. Also because its possible to create such minimal footwear out of wool that is so eco-friendly.
The shape of these old traditional boot lasts is also very interesting, because they are so old and yet so anatomical.
As Industry and Industrial processes progress and modernise and in an increasingly technocentric culture, is there a risk that some of the old wisdoms can also be lost and forgotten? Healthy, Natural materials, shoe last shapes, or even working conditions? And what role does a designer play in maintaining, or creating new wisdoms?
It sounds almost magical and utopian, barefoot footwear made from 100% wool felt in a factory, on a farm, in a forest, in Finland. A small farm in the summer and a factory during the frozen Finnish winter. The uniqueness of a shoe born in such a special environment, conditions and materials.
Please click on the link below for more photos and to
For anyone curious about the unusual life of this Footwear designer, check out my Instagram page HERE
I have recently moved to live in Russia and the inspiration here is incredible.
One inspiration being the word “Peredvizhnik”, which has 2 meanings, the first which is wanderer and the second to name a small very interesting group of Russian artists in the 1860’s who formed a group called the”Peredvizhniki” to protest against the conservative artistic restrictions in Russia at that time.
The Peredvizhniki also made traveling art exhibitions hence the name “wanderers”, to give people living in the provinces the chance to appreciate and learn about art.
Sofia Kesidou created a series of works called Paper Clips which explores a banal object as a unique subject. Hundreds of pencil drawings show the beauty and the movement in a simple strip of metal.
In drawing the paper clip, restricting aspects such as scale are lost as the object is presented in a more abstract form. The point was to show and see the beauty of shapes and details in ordinary objects.
I think learning focus on simple beauty is essential and I found this simple project very powerful and stunning.
Create New Incentives, New Ways to Design and Better Ways to Live.
“all profits are not created equal. Those that carry a social benefit are better.” How can your work and your personal skills create more social benefit?
Take a 'scroll' through the Design Blog above. My written tattoo sleeve of ideas and narratives that inspire and inform my footwear design thinking. Can Design be re-designed?