Most difficult thing was working out where to put the screws in the outsole - I wanted a transparent forepart as well, but we could not get it to pass testing, it would crack around the screws. It took us about five attempts until we got a heel that didn’t crack.
I used polycarbonate on a cricket range and a soccer range, before that, different kind of compound though. Have no pics, back in the day before we used computers, it was really hard to take copies of your work with you when you left a business,(you’d be ‘outed’ at the photocopier), so I’ve got very little left to show from then.
For a freaky design it sold really well, about 50,000 pieces. Then I went to GDS and there was a copy on every Chinese vendors stand.
I couldn’t resist taking a little creative procrastination break today. I threw down a few polycarb heels… I know, they are pretty goofy. Just having some fun.
There is nothing more exciting than when a sneaker designer designs womens fashion and vice versa. Doing what you don’t normally do really opens the creative floodgates.
This is interesting. It seems the footwear designers like interact with each other more than any other discipline. I wonder why that is?
As for transportation being second in line, I would say there really aren’t too many actual transportation designers on these forums due to the limited jobs out there in this field. It is a topic that we all like to talk about because it is so prestigious and cutting edge.
Maybe we should get some of these other fields moving like the footwear forum.
Prestigious and cutting edge? Really? I always thought of automotive as an overtrumped sweat shop. The prestige of the industry is for a very select few. Not unlike any other discipline.
But that’s just me. Automotive never really blew my skirt up. I just thought of it as another product.
How much work is there out there for more fashion-inspired womens shoes (e.g. heels, pumps, etc.) I love ideating on them because I am free do do basically whatever I want. Are there jobs out there for an ID major in this field, or is that area reserved for fashion designers?
Liz - amazing shoe designs! I mostly do men’s designs but I just felt that I should have at least 1 womens’ design. I wasn’t going for anything groundbreaking here. My approach is; would you buy this if you saw it at a shoe store?
Background: I’m a newbie here. No formal training yet. I’m just an enthusiast right now. The only training I’ve had are the brilliant shoe tutorials from Micheal D and Richard K… Someday I hope to be half as good as you are!
If you are doing ID, and you want to get into womens wear, I think it’d help you lots to do at least a short course at somewhere such as ARS Sutoria.
Edizioni AF • EdizioniAF also learn how to trend forecast and make storyboards. Fashion footwear has probably more to do with fashion design (because of the trands) than id. Most fashion footwear designers I’ve met are trained solely in footwear, either they take a footwear course, or they are factory trained.
There is lots of work out there, though, for the right people.
That is not necessarily true! It highly depends on the brand. I found the worst brand for woman shoes in terms of colour pallet is Nike! I understand this is quite a bold comment for some people in this forum but whenever I walk in to the Nike store I am always let down of the colours they pick for the women’s line of shoes (not true when it comes to their sport outfits though!). I look at the male Nike shoes however and they tend to be more attractive! Adidas seems to be pushing more boundaries since Stella McCartney did a couple of lines for them.The shoes look less conservatives.
Puma definitely has a market advantage among females in comparison to the other two when it comes to the the North American Market IMP but they focus mostly on lifestyle lines.
Sometimes it seems too difficult to convince the marketing crew to push the boundaries of what colours can possibly sell I suppose.
Unfortunately for women, a lot of lower price point women’s shoes are just men’s shoes that are done smaller and in different colors. As the prices go up and things are more fashion driven the 2 separate. As for colors, a lot of that is driven by the buyers that represent the retailers you would be surprised at the difference between what the designers pitch and what eventually makes it onto the floor. It’s no excuse but to the shoe company and the marketing teams these buyers (typically businessmen between 30-48) are the initial target market. This is true for most athletic footwear companies.
Footwear is predominantly male and it’s a shame. I’ve been at New Balance and adidas and I have to tell you that the women footwear designers I work with are few and far between but they are some of the most talented designers I’ve worked with. Its really field that needs more female designers so if you are interested then keep at it.
