Furniture Inspired Footwear - ON GOING PROJECT

The Nike “Eames”
I spent awhile trying to think of which furniture pieces to try and use. But this one was a no brainier and will be my first chair in this series.




Project thoughts: For this first project, I’ve decided against designing a completely new silhouette. Just because I want to be able to prototype these concepts quickly. I’ll go back and further explore a from scratch design in the future if time permits. But for now. I’d rather do this exploration than be overwhelmed trying to model and 3D print an outsole. Plus I thought the plushness of the Roshe outsole mimicked the Eames pillowed leather well.

Design Thoughts:
To me the Plywood shells are what everyone associates with the lounge. So how can we use that to help come up with concepts.

Unique Manufacturing
Eames (and Bertoia) developed this idea for bending and bending plywood. This unique take on wood opened up a new avenue for design aesthetic. Could I take the same approach and use modern technology to make wood do something different from its traditional role. This would lead to a concept that is inspired by the idea of the Eames Lounge, but wouldn’t necessarily look like an Eames.

Iconic Panels
On the other side, could I use the design language of the Eames and create a shoe that looks directly inspired by the aesthetic. With the lounge. The way the plywood panels interact with each other is great inspiration.

Next Steps
Continue brainstorming ideas around how to use the Eames Lounge as inspiration and begin sketching out concepts and creating mock ups.

Thanks Michael, Hoping by posting this on here. I can keep the design steam going.

Accountability typically leads to progress. :slight_smile:

United Nude shoes may hold some inspiration for your concept.

Fantastic! Very good timing as I just started a similar project (furniture inspired by footwear). I cant wait to see what you come up with here

If you want to follow your own advice “We have tons of guys here that can design shoes for today, show us something that makes you different.” Why are you not designing a new shoe? Colors and materials and nice presentation photos are all great but as a portfolio piece designing on top of an existing model doesn’t show much.

R

Yes, love their stuff. Thanks for reminding me of them.

I agree Richard and fully plan on trying to do a full footwear project from scratch. I just want to get started back up again and start making things again. I didn’t want to go all out right from the start.

On going all out from a standstill. I had this experience when I started training for soccer again. I was trying to run 3-5 miles, like I did back in the day when I played everyday. But I had a hard time finding that much free time and energy to do it daily. At that time I didn’t see the worth in running only 1 mile, whats the point. So If I couldn’t block out time for at least 3 miles that day. I would rather not run. I could easily have done a quick mile, but refused cause it wasn’t worth it. Tried that for awhile and didn’t make too much progress. I eventually lowered my goal. 1 mile run a day. (15 minutes, from getting dressed to finishing.) And guess what. My mileage increased greatly. Because it became habit to just run everyday even if it was a tiny bit.

Defining customer/market opportunity, designing the shoe itself, doing the design/marketing story, sourcing a last, outsole cad and prototype, full on pattern making, sew and lasting the shoe, etc. That’s my half-marathon and end goal. Hopefully I can get up to that as soon as possible.

This right here is my 1 mile a day project. Not a great excuse, but just my current strategy.

Cool idea Eman. Nice to see a new project thread in here! Looking forward to following along.

Taking upcoming Friday off + Jury Duty this week, and my keeping up with my work responsibilities, means I haven’t had much free time to make a ton of progress. But I’m posting what I have so far. Every small step forward helps.

Project thoughts:
I’ve distilled my ideas down to two main concepts. Both ideas kinda build off each other. And I could potentially see a cross of the two being the final execution.

Concept1 :

Concept 1 Ideas:
This is a pretty straight forward material adaption of whats already out there. Just re-purposed into footwear.
The idea is to use the wooden textile idea ( http://www.elisastrozyk.de/seite/woodtex/woodentextiles.html ) and see how that would work in the footwear medium. The to me hits on the the idea of using current manufacturing (laser cutting) to shape wood in ways not traditionally though. Bending wood via steam vs bending wood via laser pattern.

The concept ties very directly to something Nike has already done though with the Roshe Metrics, using a textile that has applied plastic triangle pattern. So this is essentially a updated version of this concept.

Ways to push this forward
Different pattern ideas? Can we create a pattern that flexes with the user better? Or creates more interesting shapes. Could it turn into something more sculptural and less fluid? Behance

Design Challenges
Would this concept hold any value as a portfolio piece? Or is it just a nicer colorway execution. Would it just be seen as an art piece?

Technical Challenges.

Getting the wood veneer to stick to permanently to the fabric substrate. Right now I’m using some standard art store adhesive sheet (Mac Tac) While its great for quick mock ups, I would like something a bit more heavy duty for the final prototype. I have ordered a few sheets/rolls of 3M 9786 and 3M 9088. Hoping to try these out and see if they work better. Anyone have any other recommendations?

Concept 2

Concept 2 Idea:

This idea is based off using the Eames itself as design inspiration. When I was looking at the first slide in this deck I noticed how the wooden panels seemed to be floating on the black leather back ground. The wood panels have a unique shape to them that allows them to flex into each other. I though could we apply the same idea to footwear “panels”

The rigid panels reminded me of Knight Greaves. AS they are made from very stiff panels that are joined in such a way that allows for a good deal of flexibility. I’m sure there is better imagery for rigid panels on a fabric substrate, that allow for movement. Hockey pads maybe? Couldn’t think of exactly what to search for. Sure it’'ll hit me later

Challenges
Making sure the panels don’t dig into the foot. I’ve had a few pair of shoe samples where the toe box stiffener is too short and it digs into the tops of my toes. Not very comfortable and I want to make sure that I don’t run into the same thing with this.

Originally though this could be combined with the wooden veneer idea, but not sure about super stiff pieces that large. (They’d have to be backed with a stiff backer, plastic, to keep them from breaking at that size.) Currently I’m thinking of using a thick leather on a fabric based shoe. Think veg tan/horween leather on a black mesh. This would hopefully give the appearance of the floating panels, but still allow for the flexibility of a standard leather shoe.

Eman, have you seen the Nike Cityknife 2?

Never heard of it, But I googled it just now. Looks like I’m 11 years too late to the party. :confused: Also looks like you did the CityKnife 3 too.

But exactly what I thought the cross between the two concepts would be. But good to see that the concept would in fact work.


Looks like theres even a pair on eBay right now
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390896634306&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en




Side note: Just noticed I joined this site 9 years ago.

It’s all been done. The concept for that shoe was inspired by a purse by Isaac Mizrahi.

What matters is what you bring to it? How will you advance it? Don’t give up, make it new.

I love the thought process, and as a furniture guy I get your motivation. I often look at the works of the masters and think “what were they thinking?”

If you do some research on this, and I assume you have, the answer is they had to design with what they had at the time. The Eames partnership were using WW2 fighter pilot seat technology and adapting it to consumer furniture.

Now 65 years on, we are faced with different constraints. How do we design without destroying what’s left? There are amazing materials coming out and new opportunities popping up all around us. I’m looking at recycled PET composites, wool blend felt and cork; bamboo and CNC machining; 3d printing and nano fibre.

There’s a rich narrative underlying the Eames lounge. I am left thinking what they would do if they were born in 1980 like I was.

agreed! not sure ive seen a shoe yet that didn’t borrow a few things from other concepts or other shoes in general.
typically when i see a shoe design that is flat out trying to be “like nothing ive ever seen before” it usually is nowhere near possible to manufacture, or its just basically an art piece that no consumer demographic would wear/buy in any sort of volume. but thats just me… :smiley:

You and this guy must be following the same pinterest boards :smiley:

Haha that’s an awesome coincidence. Think I can take it a step beyond a render though

First proof of concept sample just got finished. Took me about 5 hours to do one shoe. Still got another one to do. :cry:

Really dig this idea. Going to try and push it further a bit. Change up the sizes of the triangles to create more iconic shapes and hopefully coincide a bit with the flex zones in the shoes. Might end up doing an ombre effect too. Smaller triangles in the toe area, gradually increasing towards the heel.

Much more interesting than that rendering. That rendering is total fiction.

Eman, some things to think about:
What if the triangle are different sizes, smaller wher more flex is needed, larger she more rigidity is needed.
Do they have to be triangles? Do they need to be equalatteral triangles?

Really awesome prototype. I would buy that.

Don´t forget about the colors of wood itself. Ash and nut or something like that gives a beautiful contrast. With the triangles or such patterns you could make some very interesting forms and gradients without much trouble.