The last two plus years I’ve had the opportunity to design watches for Nixon. It’s been a BLAST. Many of the points mentioned about footwear are also what has made watches so enjoyable.
There is something so special about designing products that people use as a personal expression of self. It is what drives me to sweat each detail. I know that a watch will be visible to the wearer almost at all times throughout a day. I never want him/her to think, I wish “this” was a little different. In designing something so personal I feel truly challenged to make sure everything is just right. I recently saw a short customer review of a watch I designed. It said something like, “I bought this watch for my boyfriend and it was perfect for him.” It was an amazing feeling for me to learn that there really was a HIM. I love to think about the time someone goes into a store, searches through the noise, sees something I designed and says, “I want THAT one, it’s most ME.” AMAZING thought.
Generally all watches are the same. They are circle or square and 30-50 mm. It is what you do within that real estate that makes a design special. Lately I’ve been challenged to do many classic inspired watches for Nixon. I’ve had to really zoom in to understand how a double stitched band vs. a single stitched band changes the tone of the product. Can a classic watch be “toughened up” with raw x-stitches? These are questions I get to ask myself each day. I see this in footwear too. Shoes are shoes. It is the care that is taken in the detailing that is the differentiator. One shoe sells out and the other stays on the shelf.
Finally, I am so interested in the blur between industrial design and fashion design. As a really young kid I would go watch the best local high school basketball teams. I was always so interested in how different teams wore their warm-ups or even folded their socks. This led to an interest to fashion design and ultimately helped me discover industrial design. I think footwear is a unique space in that it truly lives in this “between space.” I’ve got many years in front of me, but as of now, I realize I am so lucky to be designing in this lifestyle space. At some point I’d love to apply my industrial design process to apparel design and hope I have the opportunity to design footwear somewhere along the way.
4 their wearers generally care about their selection
5 they are one of the few relatively complex products that a single designer pretty much does on his or her own
7 the marketplace so voraciously demands new designs that a designer can get a lot of product to market within a few years, experiment and take risks (if you can get away with it) and quickly learn from your mistakes
8 you get to see people enjoying your work publicly and get to use it yourself
9 there is a wide accepted aesthetic range to play with
12 shoes provide a means of self differentiation and self reflection to the customer as part of the wardrobe.
Thanks for reading.
D.