Interchangeable Footwear

Love them in concept and had a chance to buy when they first came out, but look kinda dorky in real life.

R

super dorky. They are more of display shelf shoes than wearing shoes I think :wink:

A colleague of mine actually had some sort of aqua socks he wore often that almost looked the same. But he got them $15 at a dollar store instead of $250…

R

much better deal… for the price of interchangeability he could have gotten 16 pairs of his aqua socks and had a little change left over.

Thanks for the replies.

I was already aware of the Nat2 brand and their interchangeable style and i totally agree with Richard and Michael, that they don’t look good. The system they use is so badly executed that it looks cheap, and too bulky. They’ve essentially got two shoes in one but both on the outsole at the same time which makes it too out of proportion as there is way too much fabric and layering of components going on.
I’ve been approached by a clothing company to come up with some ideas for this type of product ,to compliment their classic, minimalist feel on clothing. I want the shoe to look and feel as natural as possible and to not compromise on the overall look and simplicity because of the interchangeability.
I’m thinking of developing 2 initial products. Both uppers on the products will disconnect via zip [still thinking about this one] at the most forward point of the eyelet/facing panel and zip round to the other side to remove the upper. This means that the outsole will have the toecap/vamp connected and possibly tongue [this could be interchangeable too] as i think if the toe/vamp is lasted onto the sole the shoe will look much more conventional from the wearers perspective and also on display which i believe is important. The first consideration is a lo top which i’m thinking should have a common projects “achilles” look, which will transform into a rather nice hi-top. The second option is going to be same construction, but again two different uppers styles, but due to the panelling on these styles the other two uppers from the first option will not fit this kit. So all in all you have 4 footwear styles [for the time being] across two kits.
Development process will begin soon…

Curious, what is considered a reasonable price for TPU tooling in the shoe world? Please indicate estimated volume as well to put the numbers in perspective…

It depends entirely on the size of the component. I’ve opened a TPU mould recently for a heel stabiliser which will be used on an EVA running shoe which was a couple hundred dollars. We then need to open the size run for production as the stabiliser obviously gets bigger each size you go up. We’ve opened production moulds for a tech running sole as well which was around 10K dollars.

I know it’s not replacing the whole shoe, but does anyone remember these with the interchangeable tongues?
http://www.sneakernoize.com/2011/09/adidas-originals-century-lo-bk-3-crooked-tongues/
or another variation

Btw, I was saying the Nikes are dorky. Didn’t look at the other ones.

R

TPU tools typically are pretty inexpensive for a component. Often with a heel piece they are the same part from left to right shoe, so there are some savings here as well.

With the Newson shoe, the mold had to fit the entire shoe, so it was quite large. To get all of the circles radiating in every direction, it was a 5 part mold, with a solid core. Duplicate that cost for the left and the right shoe, now duplicate that cost for each size of the shoe… $$$ Now make molds for the inserts as well that mechanically snap in…not sure what the dollars and cents were.

If making any tooling consider how you could make the part flat and wrap around during assembly. Flat parts are not that expensive, but as soon as you have something 3D with a lot of volume, the price increases quite a lot. Multi shot colors and details also add costs.

I’ve seen anything from a $600 mold for a small TPU shank up to a $8000 mold for a 3 color shot soccer outsole.

R

Right, those prices are in line with my experience with TPU as well - usually quite cheap compared to the typical ABS/2k stuff. I just figured that with the high volume of shoes the investment in any TPU tooling would be negligible. Any plastic tooling below $10k I usually consider cheap… But I suppose the payoff times in business cases for shoes would need to be much shorter since the shelf life might not be more than what, 2 years? So cheap in one field is not as cheap in another… also I forgot about the 10 different sizes thing :slight_smile:

I have opened moulds costing around the 10k mark with our factories and they themselves pay for them up front. Our customer might place an initial order of 30k units and a further order of say 20k. The factory simply add around 20 cents t the cost of each unit and the cost of the mould disappears so to speak as its been costed into the orders over time.

Hi all I’m always in and out of this forum and sure I have posted a few times. So hello to all and will be hopefully adding my 2 cents to anything discussed.

Regarding mould costs for TPU etc, It is an expensive part of the footwear process as pointed out by many already. Using TPU outsoles for football I have worked on costs around 8-10K so is very costly. Using moulds like the Adidas F50 where the counter is incorporated adds a lot more to this due to having further sections that have to move etc to remove a more ‘3D’ unit.

Pebax is quite a brilliant product that is a more advanced TPU but cost a third or so more

Tom

Tmatic, i believe this is the Tmatic from such fame as the footsoldiers?!

yes?

good to be in touch mate

Sounds a lot like this?

I would check patents out before you get on with the design of this - there are 3 companies that I know of (incl. Nat-2) selling patented zippered type footwear at the moment and AFAIK all hold patents.

I remember we were having a large collaborative work session on modular footwear, this was about 10 years back. Most of us were hard at work cranking on different ways to have interchangable parts, when a designer who was smarter than me got up to leave the room. He left us with this, to paraphrase “I just realized this is futile, the entire shoe is a modular part of your wardrobe, if you wanted a different looking shoe, you would just buy another shoe. It is not like they cost as much as cars.”

The rest of us kept working, and a bunch of prototypes and samples were made, but nothing reached production.

I’ve seen a few zip products in production. They always fall apart for me in a couple of key areas: 1) zippers are fussy, they are never easy to zip on as they are to zip off. 2) Shoes get grimy, I really don’t want to be touching the bottom of my shoes much.

a few things to look at:

This one is pretty cool. A zip off collar from Creative Rec. Changes the shoe without having to fuss with the outsole/midsole unit.

“I just realized this is futile, the entire shoe is a modular part of your wardrobe, if you wanted a different looking shoe, you would just buy another shoe. It is not like they cost as much as cars.”

This is how I feel about the womens shoe with adjustable heel so you can go from low to high heel.
3 companies have now brought this to market and they all look awful. Main reason being that a womans foot is a completely different shape and length when it’s on a high heel compared to a mid heel or a flat, go look at some lasts to see how different that shape is. It’s so, so different. So, unless you can design some kind of robot-shoe that has an extendable and retractable sock, a topline that can change length, then you end up with a compromise that looks dreadful. Plus the mechanism, it’s ugly. Do we really need inventions or contraptions like this?

Yet everyone still keeps on trying it.

The companies that have had success are not the ones offering adjustable heels, it’s the ones that have found another solution to the ‘problem’, those that offer a roll up or foldable ballerina pump, that you can pop in you purse. So you can have your Louboutins with the sexy heel (instead of some monstrous telescopic bit of black ABS) and then put the ballet shoes on when you’ve had enough.

On the same tip there is someone trying to flog heel cover attachments so you don’t trash your shoes in the car whilst driving. Again, it’s a design for a problem that already has a solution, is it that hard to keep some driving shoes or old loafers in your car?

Re. the zipper shoes - I think they only really work for kids, kids like to play with toys and it makes the shoe into a toy. One of my old fast-fashion bosses back in the day said to me, ‘make the shoes look like toys.’

Look at the shoe designs by Fessura. They’ve been making different upper designs on the same 2 soles for over 10 years. Sure the brand never grew to become mainstream, but their designs are still fresh and for some like myself iconic.

They used to make an interesting Chuck Taylor type upper which was velcroed onto the sole, but I forget the name of that model.