Interchangeable Footwear

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.

What is really important ?
Is it “good shoe design” with few options or per say it is interchangeable (ITC) shoe?

ITC option. It works for little expensive product …not of regular use.
So when you purchase them, you see the add-on advantage/ value in the product.
Moreover, Interchangeability always affects one of the factors (strength, design, integrity)…to offer it in the product.

Coming back to this post, I think “ITC upper” is a good option but the design should be at par with the existing non ITC design.
Otherwise, it will be difficult to trade with…

“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.”

Thanks for all your replies.

I didn’t mention earlier that my client has a patent granted on their idea. The only thing i’m still working on regarding this is the style/ material of the zipper. The patent includes the upper being allowed to zip off the outsole as i described earlier, however their uniqueness is that the toe cap/vamp does not and still looks like a conventional shoe which is nice as it retains that classic look from all angles. I think the toe is vital for customers to make the decision on whether the product looks nice. My idea has always been as one of the posters has stated, that the shoe should have the interchangeability however not compromise too much on looks. Some very interested buyers have said to us “why don’t you make the zip a strong feature” but in my eyes it’s more of a reason not to buy the product for a lot of people.

Some very interesting posts which i’m very appreciative of.

Thank you

will keep you updated

When I saw this topic I remembered a footwear brand I came across a few years ago called ‘Skins’. Essentially the upper and outsole are one piece (this is the Skin) and then there looks to be a TPU mould which goes into the shoe to give it structure which they call the Bones. The whole idea is so you can interchange your shoe (Skin) depending on where you are and what you’re doing without changing the fit and feel (Bones). I’ve never seen these in person and had completely forgot about them until now. Here is the link anyway http://skinsfootwear.ca/index.php

Basically a “grenade” construction outsole/upper with a drop in midsole? Looks pretty well done.

Nordmade, good luck with the project! Lots of people have taken a crack at this but no one seems to have been able to pull it off fully… Yet. There seems to be a fascination with it.

I wonder if anyone would sell it as a “kit”. One outsole with 2 or 3 uppers so you have some parts to interchange out I the box. We are doing that with a headphone this year. It comes with 2 of all of the parts you can interchange. Called the BOOM Swap polkboom.com is for sale | HugeDomains

Thank you Michael. I like the idea of a product which you can adapt whether its to change its “look” or colour way but also to update its components to keep it current or feeling like new. Like a PC i guess where you can take the tower off and upgrade the processor or hardrive. The idea of making products more useful buy not making them ready for the scrap yard or obsolete after a small amount of time appeals to me greatly.

Nice headphones by the way.

thanks

Interesting detailing…

Lego-Inspired Interchangeable Shoes for Men …
urshuz.jpg

Check out Toeot Sandals new bootie accessory called vj002-1.

Despite the colours the form language is similar to the interchangeable headphones from a previous comment.

and another attachment system they use.

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

yes?

good to be in touch mate"

It is indeed, well I left there last year. Sorry who is this though?

A late reply I know, been busy!

I know this not fashion oriented foot wear. But I fly fish a lot and use a boot by a company called Kokers. They have a great system for interchangeable outsoles. This is an important feature because of the spread of invasive animal species. There has been a big push to rubber outsoles with spikes. This does not grip as well as the old felt soles. But keeps the animal life form hanging in you outsoles to a minimum. But if you want felt soles you use to have to buy a different shoe. With there design you can just easily replace the felt outsole for a new rubber spike sole for watersheds that require it. It works I have swapped the outsoles many times with out much problem.

I’m sure most footwear designers know of the presto clip and its interchangable soles, but I thought this thread deserved a pic just in case. I thought it was an elegant solution as the midsole/upper literally ‘clips’ on and off. (50% of the EVA midsole is visible - the protruding EVA ‘pods’ - while the other half of the EVA sits inside the upper) . Sadly the pair I bought failed early on due to the rubber ripping underneath (under normal light wear too - I never ‘unclipped’ the sole), but strangely I still love them.

Was the clip ever meant to change soles? I thought it was just a smart design/assembly thing. If I recall correctly I think Ecco or vivo also had a shoe a while back with the same construction.

R

I’m not sure. I think some stores here in the UK switched the different coloured soles around for display purposes, so I presumed it was a customisation thing. I think it was in store around the same time their considered range so your smart assembly reasoning makes sense.

I forgot about the clip. Those came out right when I started at Nike in the early 2000’s. They were the first shoe I bought from the employee store. Designed by Eric Avar. I loved those things. I think the original thought was to be interchangeable, but to get it to function correctly as a shoe, the mechanical lock was so tight that it was incredibly difficult to disassemble. Plus there was no retail vehicle for just buying uppers or sole units because .com retail was not nearly as developed as it is now.

Hi everyone

We’ve been developing the product and i’m visiting the FE in a few weeks to review the various test prototypes we have in work. We’re still deciding on the construction of the tongue and its attachment.

the product is interchangeable where the upper zips off from the outsole, and can be changed into a hi-top silhouette simply by zipping on a new upper. the toecap is lasted to the sole and the upper zips off from toecap to toecap if you get what i mean

  1. Should it be a detachable tongue which attaches via velcro/other which would mean that the overall colour of the shoe would be tonal - ie. grey tongue and grey upper. This would mean that the tongue would be sold along with the upper as a separate product in-store.

  2. Or have a fixed tongue which would be stitched to the toecap - this will however compromise the look of the shoe as the tongues will all have to be one colour or, we design it so the tongue can be covered to compliment the upper colour.

  3. Also if the tongue is fixed it will have to somehow transform into a tongue suitable for a high top as well as a low top.

We’re speaking to buyers at the moment to gauge whether the detachable tongue is one step too far in terms of it becoming a 3 piece product - upper, tongue, outsole. It originally was conceived as a two piece product with only the outsoles and the upper.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

thanks