Designer's Footwear

Special Interest Areas footwear & softgoods
1

Someone must have been inspired by our very own New KICKS" topic.

What’s your take on this project?

http://www.prideparanoia.com/df/

Anyone know more about this?

From my perspective, looking at the our “new KICKS” topic, and what other designer I know wear, I would say that designers are not particularily adventerous in footwear choice. EVEN footwear designers, for the most part.

Fashion designers, yes, maybe, but i see a lot of plain, black, brown and usual white tennis shoes around…

Case in point, Medium Footwear supposedly created by designers for designers. OK stuff, but really nothing special, IMHO.

Maybe I just have strange taste. I prefer either more dressy/euro (ie. Miu Miu, Costume National, Shoe Shi Bar, etc.), more different (ie. Fessura, Bernhart Willhem), or something truely unique on the athleisure side (ie. some of the Mihara stuff by Puma). Somesttuff b/w categories is nice too (Puma Platinum/blackstation, nike crossovers, etc.).


R

2

Don’t forget about Heyday’s…

3

Nope didnt forget :slight_smile:

just speaking more about the established footwear brands currently in the market.

R

4

as a graduate and aspiring industrial designer, i think the book is an awesome concept but it makes the assumption that just because someone is in the design industry, they would immediately rock moon shoes. i mean, yeah, designers are privy to all the new, up and coming styles and technologies, but it doesn’t mean that their personal sense of style should all of a sudden be different from the next person.

but then again, my personal taste in kicks has been questioned at times by my friends (turbo pink rifts, rainbow wovens, sabakus and espo’s to name a few).

i guess the only things extra designers can add when asked “WHY” they are wearing a particular shoe (besides aesthetics) would be a deeper meaning in terms of functionality, history and design derivation.

5

Good point dude.

Personally I think most designers are conservative because we understand the cyclical nature of things, and there are only a few things that are always good to have. My closet is full of classics and rocket ships. The rocket ships come out once in awhile, but most of the time you just want to be easy.

6

nice. always wanted a pair of those rainbow woven. got a pair of HTM woven, but love the rainbow color…even been tempted to pick up a fake pair in shenzhen a few time (but never have).

I also agree with Yo that most designers are conservative, but i disagree to the reason. I truely believe that maybe apart from shoe (and maybe fashion) designers, most designers dont actually have much personal style.

All black T-neck Steve Jobs is a good example, although not exactly a designer is the uniform of choice for many.

not too many rock the white suit and pink shoes karim style.

Its like having a book of engineers submit their choices of cars. I highly doubt most would be good examples of top engineering like MB, BMW, etc. mostly Fords and Honda i would guess with the odd volvo perhaps (and i like volvo).

R

7

i guess the only things extra designers can add when asked “WHY” they are wearing a particular shoe (besides aesthetics) would be a deeper meaning in terms of functionality, history and design derivation.

that also assumes the designer could do that…


Personally I think most designers are conservative because we understand the cyclical nature of things, and there are only a few things that are always good to have

.

i agree to the extent that knowing the how, what, & why of product may make for a more discerning taste/opinion which leads to what i have notice in general about people:

most have pretty specific taste and though the occasional trend comes around, most “stay in their lane” especially when it comes to “style” items, and designers imo are just maybe just a lil’ more aware of their own personal style (i.e. what they like & what they do not like). so it makes sense to me that most designers are more conservative in style than extreme…

8



Just reread again Yo’s reason in junglebrodda’s reply and I take back my disagreement. I dunno, must have read it differently in my head the first time.

I would say that to some extent your point is actually dead on, but would add that maybe its more specifically a footwear designer’s thing.

I know its been discussed somewhere else here in the footwear forum, but like many in the biz, I was first grabbing all the new crazy kicks i could find on my frequent trend forecasting trips to HK, London, NYC, etc. (Loved the really different styles like the superflys, wovens, rifts, etc…never one for the “limited dunks”.)

After a while however, and amassing well over 100prs of shoes, I found myself markedly less interested. There are always going to be something new out there, but I did find that so much of what I had that once was new, to me, became old, even if nobody else had ever seen them. Cyclical or short lifespan/interest indeed.

In searching for the newest new, I actually began to appreciate the style of consistency and classicsm. I wouldn’t exactly say conservative, but I I’ve grown my appreciation more for dress shoes and less for sneakers, at least. Still, with a twist (you wouldnt catch me dead in something from Aldo), but also more flexible in style (good pair of pointy dress shoes are equally good with jeans as with a suit, not true for sneaks, unless you are 14 or a wannabe hipster).

In some cases this appreciation of the"few things that are always good to have" I feel is also a reaction perhaps against the mainstreamng of sneaker culture with 100,000,000s of “limited” dunks, that look like colorways picked by epileptic monekys in “collab” with a retarded elephant to spec the materials. Footwear designers see this, know how easy it truely is to pick a new color/material combo, understand the economics of the volume/demand (ie. “limited edition”), and go the other direction.

R.


R

9

LOL… true.

10

“look at me I am so crazy with my crazy colorful shoes”…I don’t think so…LOL… I think many times crazy shoes distract the attention from appreciating a nice pattern, a brilliant idea or a new treatment or technology. I still think the book idea is great!!! I will make sure to send a pic, also forwarded the link to other designers in the office. We will see what comes out!!

11

maybe it is because as designers we know in our hearts of hearts that the technology built into the rocket ship type shoes is some form of 3rd party buy in (relying on sophistictaed materials, off the shelf solutions) due to the limited time for generation of functional concept. (it is a business at the end of the day and needs to make money to grow and maintain)

that is why i keep it simple and have a few rares for when I need to look like I know what I say about footwear. I trust what I wear (can cushioning gel systems etc outperform eva on standard testing!- depnds how you test and what you want the outcome to be) and not signifying certain things ect

12

At an IDSA event a few years back I was asked by a collegue who designed appliances; “What is my favorite shoe ever designed.?” When I responed "Adidas Samba " He was suprised as he perceived my response to be something totally wieird and cutting edge like :“Limited Edition Nike Flightposite Evolve Turbo Air Max Terra Humarrra Tailwind; Hemp and Octane green colorway…”

But the above quote hits the nail on the head as to why I like it and as to why footwear deisgners tend to have conservative tastes in footwear: its the deeper meaning in terms of functionality, history and design derivation aside from the outward styling that we understand and attracts us.

question is tho: For the Designer’s Footwear book: Do you put on the everyday kicks that have meaning? Or go for that weird thing that everyone expects you to do? Whose pereception are you looking to fullfill? Yours or Your audience?

13

haha. you forgot to add “Nike x Stussy x Banksy x Millionaire Boys Club x Crooked Tongues x HTM” collab.

Japan release only. NIB.

:slight_smile: