Firstly I would like to apologize if I have offended anyone. My intention was only to state what I believe; that in a time of skyrocketing consumption and waste, designers have an even greater impact and duty to design product responsibly. I’m not against anyone, I am a footwear designer like you. I’m simply asking different footwear design questions, ones which I believe are the most important.
So far most replies on this post have all blamed someone else for the pollution caused by athletic footwear; the consumer, their employer and even me for being ill informed and not knowing much about footwear design. Should designers wait for materials suppliers to offer environmentally friendly solutions, for marketing to write the environmental briefs, or for consumers to demand product with reduced environmental impact? I think not, not only because we are all responsible for the environment, but also because we will waste time waiting, relying on each other to come up with the solutions.
So every now and then I revive this post to see if peoples impressions about footwear design and pollution have changed. So far it seems that some people still don’t feel very concerned, nor responsible for the environmental impact footwear has and others feel helpless. Designing a shoe to perform for a few years with a disregard about the next 600 years seems to be the industry and design standard. I hope this perspective is changing because unfortunately footwear contraception doesn’t exist and we can’t continue just having fun designing and forgetting about our designs and their consequences once the season is over. We are associated to them for their entire life, which is longer than ours, so lets try to reduce the negative impact our designs have on our environment.
In the face of increased global consumption and pollution it’s even more important to educate ourselves on how to reduce the negative environmental impact of our designs, because they will be sold in greater quantities than ever. I’m no educator and I don’t have many answers yet, but I have questions. This forum viewed probably for the most part by footwear designers and students, seems the best and most direct place to ask those questions and maybe if its possible, even create just a spark of a discussion.
Here is my perspective and some of my answers.
I believe designers have a talent, they are free thinkers and their creativity should be put to the best use and not just be industrial pawns. As designers we should always strive to be better, not only technically, but also in identifying and solving the most important problems, not just the ones we are hired to solve. In my opinion, for some time mainstream design thinking, not only in footwear has been quite linear and the most important problems are not being solved. Ask yourself has athletic footwear design, with all the designers working to innovate it, really come far enough in the last 20 years? Especially when it continues to a have the same negative impact on the environment.
Can we consider the new footwear uppers we design progress from last year, or from 10 years ago? Isn’t it true that most times change only creates the illusion of progress?
Shouldn’t we educate ourselves to further challenge the convention, designing beyond the simple parameters set by the brief. Because our linear form of footwear design thinking is not only detrimental to the environment but is also becoming conventional in itself. And designers should be neither of the two. We can’t continue to just mimic popular culture and structural performance, while dumping synthetic waste on our planet increases.
We designers are problem solvers, not problem makers.
It’s not a pissing match for me, just an uncomfortable discussion about the stagnant state of footwear design and the environmental impact it has. Sure my approach is bold and urgent, but tell me there is no urgency.
My hope is to shake, wake and get a response by asking a few hard questions. Lets get everything out into the open to confront and to discuss, instead of keeping our heads buried in the sand.
I am not pointing fingers, I am not being a hypocrite, I’m just asking questions that I think any ethical designer should be asking. This is a forum where all footwear design questions should be asked even the difficult ones, not just ones about sourcing, networking and rendering techniques. Mine is “how do you feel about the non-biodegradable, non-recyclable waste athletic footwear designers create?”
Everything I’ve written, I’ve asked myself and experienced personally. I don’t think I’m ill informed. I’ve also designed footwear with high quantities of non-biodegradable and non-recyclable content (what athletic uppers are?). But today I’m intentionally designing much less of that footwear as I explore new dimensions in footwear design. The reasons are two; the first being that I became uncomfortable associating myself with millions of environmentally polluting shoes which I designed in order to appeal exclusively to the performance and fashion seeking athletic consumer. Shoes that would perform for only a few years before they sat in a landfill for the next 600. The second is that I didn’t want to continue exclusively down the linear design path of replicating parametric/planar tessellations, vintage details, or spinning anymore zoomorphic concepts when design is so much more than imitation and repetition.
Recently the terms ‘Retro Culture’ and ‘Karaoke Culture’ have been discussed and used to describe the repetitive nature of our culture and consequently our design.
Tell me footwear design is not repetitive.
Malcolm Mclaren puts it best in his social-critique video on the web:-
“in a karaoke world you’re free from any real responsibility, beyond that moment of performance”.
Which is exactly how I once felt, drooling over that complex shank mold, inspired from tensile structures.
There have also been countless design manifestos written, the ‘First Things First Manifesto 2000’ being one of them states how: -
“designers then apply their skill and imagination to sell dog biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds, detergents, hair gel, cigarettes, credit cards, sneakers, butt toners, light beer and heavy-duty recreational vehicles. Commercial work has always paid the bills, but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what graphic designers do. This, in turn, is how the world perceives design. The profession’s time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best.”
“There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills.” as “Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention.”
http://maxbruinsma.nl/index1.html?ftf2000.htm
Signs that all is not well in the design culture. We should be doing more than convincing consumers they look fashionable, that they can run faster on the track, or cut harder on the court.
The big question I am asked in this forum is what am I doing about it? How am I educating myself and challenging convention?
There are countless ways to evolve design culture positively. So I’m not saying how it should be done, but I would like to see if a discussion could be had to share possible solutions, or experiences. I can share 2: -
1. Search and learn about more ways to reduce the negative environmental you have in your daily life.
Some readers of the forum seem skeptical about sustainable design and sustainable consumers. What is certain is that one cannot happen without the other.
I’m not an apparel designer, nor a T.V, nor cell phone designer, so I have little say in the design evolution of those products. However as a consumer I can still try and reduce the environmental impact I have using products that I haven’t designed. Not only that, but my sustainable consumer experience directly or indirectly informs and drives my sustainable design thinking.
I believe that to attempt to live sustainably is also to develop sustainable design thinking.
Here are a few of the personal changes I have made in my life that both have less impact on the environment and inform my design thinking: -
I wear second hand synthetic sports gear and mend it when it breaks so as to reduce my environmental impact. Because sport is not about appearance, nor about the latest gear, Its about body and mind. I believe the future of sport should be in its core philosophy; the performance of body and mind, not technologies and accessories. This you can already see in minimal running footwear. My running sandals I made myself from used rubber and leather, they also have a ‘zero drop’ and the best part is all the components come apart so its also easy change the sole and to recycle. My hiking boots might be a little heavier due to the thicker leather, but do not need a waterproof membrane which would slowly break down, they are also resolable.
I replace the broken parts on my MacBook with the help of http://www.ifixit.com. Lets not romanticize, you don’t need an emotional attachment to keep using any athletic product longer, just an enjoyment of sport over fashion and quality product that will last and can who’s broken/worn parts can be replaced (even with a mark-up). What if you could put a brand new Air 360 sole on you old Air Jordan 13 and recycle the old worn sole?
Sure I still find it hard to buy food without plastic packaging and I’m not saying we should stop driving cars, but to imagine a lifetime of unrestrained unsustainable waste making is nauseating.
I listen to a podcast called ‘Getting Right With Gaia’, which although eclectic I feel is informative and motivating.
http://thegaiacast.com/
Design is a reflection of our culture; I believe we designers must improve our personal culture if we are to improve our design. Question ourselves, how progressive are we and how positive are the things we stand for? We should be the early adopters and begin living a more sustainable lifestyle in order to design more sustainable product. We have to first question the environmental impact of everything we do in life, before we can effectively think that way when we design.
As designers not only do we have the gift of creativity, but we’re also in the position to encourage changes in our culture, because we create much of its physical expression. In these times we should be focusing more on solving serious problems like pollution, than alternative closure systems, signature athlete footwear jewels and an improved cleat placement.
How much longer can we focus on restyling retro while our use of synthetics adds to the suffocating pollution on our “spaceship earth”?
2. If there is no company that prioritizes environmentally conscious design and none of your solutions are adopted, start your own commercial project, brand or school. Design should not be exclusive to mainstream industry.
I’ve started developing a socially and environmentally conscious footwear brand concept and footwear collection. To implement my design philosophy and solutions and one day those of other designers. Socially and/or environmentally conscious brands fascinate me because their footwear design can focus on a new kind of performance. The bigger picture is that the sooner we can create and develop more socially and environmentally conscious footwear brands, each with a different purpose and mission, the sooner and easier it will be to design in other directions than athletic structural performance and aesthetic. Developing new brand philosophies and frameworks to maximize deliverables, to define more aspects of design than just short-term performance and style. Places where a designer is encouraged to focus on designing an upper, or sole that is easily dismantled for recycling, or challenged to integrate hemp which has antimildew and antimicrobial properties instead heading to the closest Yi Jin polyester mesh catalogue.
I’m not saying stop designing high volume footwear, nor stop thinking about ‘cool’, but I think we should ask ourselves what is footwear design, what does it benefit and what does it harm? To seek not just to enhance the benefits of footwear but also to reduce its harm.
If your design is like ‘your baby’, what happens to it when it gets older?
I don’t have many answers but its important we all to try and find as many as we can.
As footwear designers what can we do to reduce the negative environmental or designs have?
We designers are problem solvers, not problem makers.