Wood is inherently a horrible material for a shoe unless you are making a wooden clog. I think pieces like it has to be used to do what you want it will chip, it will crack, it will be inconsistent, it will peal off. Basically a welded synthetic material would do what you want with much more reliability.
Ricky is right. The Eames were pioneers in molded ply, but also fiberglass and other composited. They were experimenting with cutting edge materials (molded ply was super high tech pre WWII when they started messing with it) that were inspired by the application.
Now it has become a “look” of course which is totally fine, but is it right for this. I was surprised how much pr hear that render above got. Says something as well as to the cultural resonance I suppose.