Scott,
I highly respect your skills in design and rendering. Wish I had those visualization abilities.
Maybe it’s just an aesthetic thing, but the results of the experiment don’t seem particularly useful. Perhaps you could tweak the generative algorithm to start with basic conventional shoe parts and modify from there. For example there are several standard patterns for toecaps, eyestays, heel overlays, etc. just random graphics don’t really apply to footwear much except maybe cheap kids shoes.
R