Please Read Me. Footwear Design Cliffs Notes Pls

Hi everyone, I stumbled across this site from preliminary google reasearch. So here’s the deal…

I am starting my own shoe line. I’ve decided to start with 5 styles. I have all my sketches done, and have a pretty good idea of color ways, materials, etc. I have a clear idea of the market I’ll be targeting, and retail avenues (will sell them directly, no stockists), which will basically be a vertical business model.

That said, I am a bit confused as the proper way to go about executing from sketch to production. I’ve already decided that all my shoes will be Italian made, and have already been in touch with a few Italian manufacturers. So my questions are as follows.

1. Is it absolutely necessary to have my own Lasts made, or can I use standard factory lasts that fit with the design.
2. If I do get Lasts made will I need hundreds of them, or just 1 pair of lasts per size, per style?
3. How much should I realistically pay for each Last (wooden or plastic)?
4. An Italain agent told me that I’ll need a shoe “stylist” to “industrialize” the shoe with CAD-CAM software. Shouldn’t this service be provided by manufacturer?
5. I’ve read that I’ll need a pattern maker (is this part of the manufacturer’s service?) and is it the same as the CAD CAM “stylist” mentioned in previous question?
6. At what point do I have the prototype made?
7. And finally, do you recommend partnering with Stockists and retailers? Why? I want to keep my footwear at a specific price point so wholesaling to retailers might increase retail price above what I want for the brand.

Any input would be immensely appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Iammichali you seem ambitious and I wish you luck.

Here are some of my suggestions and perspectives:-

1. Is it absolutely necessary to have my own Lasts made, or can I use standard factory lasts that fit with the design.
   You can use factory lasts if they want to share them with you, but its not guaranteed that they have a last shape which you like.

2. If I do get Lasts made will I need hundreds of them, or just 1 pair of lasts per size, per style?
   A factory makes money by producing thousands of pairs of shoes, they also hire lots of workers that they need to pay, so you will need a lot of lasts for every size run.

3. How much should I realistically pay for each Last (wooden or plastic)?
   Lasts are made of plastic. In Italy they will cost more than in China.

4. An Italain agent told me that I’ll need a shoe “stylist” to “industrialize” the shoe with CAD-CAM software. Shouldn’t this service be provided by manufacturer?
   You are starting a shoe brand, not a small specialty online retail business, so you will probably need to hire people for contract work, accounting, legal, export agents. The manufacturer has the manpower and pattern makers, but depending on the complexity of your product they might not know how to solve a construction problem, or where to source specific materials, so someone will need to be on site to help (they don’t have the same resources as the big Chinese Factories). Consider how well do the factory staff speak English, or how well do you speak Italian.

5. I’ve read that I’ll need a pattern maker (is this part of the manufacturer’s service?) and is it the same as the CAD CAM “stylist” mentioned in previous question?
   You will need clear and detailed tech packs to help the factory and pattern makers understand you designs, thats probably where the stylist can help. You will also need someone who can make sure the factory is executing the development of the product as intended, maybe that’s where the stylist can help, other times the agent can take care off resolving some issues.

6. At what point do I have the prototype made?
   The prototypes are made straight away, or as soon as the factory has availability. Because they might have dozens of last minute requests from established clients. If you have no equity they might even put your prototype development on hold.

7. And finally, do you recommend partnering with Stockists and retailers? Why? I want to keep my footwear at a specific price point so wholesaling to retailers might increase retail price above what I want for the brand.
   How will you partner with retailers, are you sure they want your business on their limited budget and shelf space? Remember despite your designs retailers will probably choose to sell a brand that they know can sell and which can guarantee on time shipping.

Remember you are a small fish, why will a factory want to work with you if they are already working with established brands that can guarantee sales and revenue? What if you cannot place enough orders for them to pay their staff?

It helps if you already have a good relationship with the factory and can encourage them to help you out. Maybe that’s where an agent or stylist can help get you to the front of the line or close enough.

Don’t worry about the price of lasts, just consider how much you will have to pay the factory for a minimum production order, then add shipping and taxes, export agent fees. If the factory is in Italy the cost per pair will probably be even higher. The factory won’t give you credit so you will probably need investors, who will want a healthy return.

Another option is to use, or tweak existing factory brand designs to which you can add your logo the following season. There you will have fewer technical development difficulties and they won’t sideline your designs to develop for other customers. Take a walk at some Italian footwear trade show to look for some factory brands.

The road to success is all up hill. It helps if you have good preparation.

Superwoo thank you very much for your input. I will take it all into consideration.

[quote=“Iammichali”]

1. Is it absolutely necessary to have my own Lasts made, or can I use standard factory lasts that fit with the design.
   If you do your own then you face bigger minimum orders for everything - because the factory cannot use existing components that go with the last, they have to make them specially and all of these components will have minimums. If you are new - the more existing kit you can use, the happier the factory will be. Sometimes you have to compromise a bit to get started.
2. If I do get Lasts made will I need hundreds of them, or just 1 pair of lasts per size, per style?
   If your orders are small then a few pairs per size - but a designer doesn’t really need to figure this out - the factory figures it out. If they want you to pay the tooling, then they will either quote a lump sum for the lot or let you amortise it (i.e. pay a bit extra for each pair). IME the smaller your inital order, the more you are expected to pay upfront. Usually only trusted regular customers get the opportunity to amortise their costs.
3. How much should I realistically pay for each Last (wooden or plastic)?
   Wooden lasts are the hand carved prototypes, not used for production. Expect to pay about $400+ for an exclusive prototype. But you can often adapt existing lasts and this is cheaper as it’s less messing about for the last maker. Plastic ones are about $40+ and are used for production. This is not the only tooling up, though - if you are not hand cutting, then there’s the press knives, insole boards and stiffeners. All are made to fit the last.
4. An Italain agent told me that I’ll need a shoe “stylist” to “industrialize” the shoe with CAD-CAM software. Shouldn’t this service be provided by manufacturer?
   He means a designer, to write the tech packs. In Italy they call us stylists. There’s a thread on tech packs in this forum.
5. I’ve read that I’ll need a pattern maker (is this part of the manufacturer’s service?) and is it the same as the CAD CAM “stylist” mentioned in previous question?
   Most Italian factories have their own in house stylists (i.e. designer) - they will do your pattern cutting, but don’t expect them to make your tech packs too. They have plenty of their own to do - many make their own brand too.
6. At what point do I have the prototype made?
   When you’ve convinced the factory that you’re serious and you have tech packs ready and you know exactly what you want. Check with them the price. It’s not unusual to have to pay a 10,000 euro deposit pro forma which will be taken off the cost of your first order. If your order is less than 10,000 euro, don’t expect to get this money back! Prototyping is expensive and factories dislike time wasters who only want to play at shoemaking. They need orders. Hence the danger money. They may also set limits on how many prototypes you can make, so make sure your tech packs are excellent and easy to understand, because if the shoes don’t turn out great, you may not have the opportunity for that many revisions.
7. And finally, do you recommend partnering with Stockists and retailers? Why? I want to keep my footwear at a specific price point so wholesaling to retailers might increase retail price above what I want for the brand.
   You’re out on your own here, mate . No factory or retailer will invest in the brand of someone else. If you sell directly to the customer, then , yes, you can possibly sell at a lower price, but you hold all of the stock and all of the risk.

Superwoo, shoenista. Thanks for the information in general. Must to be cool to have money and knowledge to make a line of shoes and the brand. Thank you very much.