The Worshipful Company of Cordwainers has been hosting their National Footwear Awards since 2012. The three universities that are invited to enter the prestigious competition are De Montfort University, The University of Northampton, and University of the Arts London. All entries into the competition remain anonymous to ensure fair judging. The brief requires each student to produce a portfolio of a maximum of 60 pages but also a prototype of the final shoe design. “To generate a body of Creative visual research and produce an innovative and marketable shoe design. Consideration should be given to the “Concept” or “Story” of your project and should be chronologically ordered. It should also focus should on sustainability. Product genre could be Womenswear, Menswear or Childrenswear and could span all categories of footwear, fashion, performance, or specific functionality.”
This project looks to support and conserve the natural wildlife of Poland through bringing attention to who and what makes the country what it is. 'Reinvesting' is the key term that this design process aims to highlight. The native fauna and flora are the drawing points that bring life and meaning to the footwear styles. From taking inspiration from Poland’s iconic animals and natural environments to ensuring they remain protected. Many populations of native species have unfortunately been diminished, wiped out, or put at risk of endangerment. Having stable numbers of species is vital to healthy functioning ecosystems so it's just as important to keep them alive and put them in a position to thrive.
How I wanted to incorporate sustainability into this project
· Apple Leather- Gives farmers a second source of income. Incredibly sustainable alternative to genuine leather. Despite what you may be told by today’s influencers and ‘trendy’ brands, genuine leather is far more sustainable than their plastic-coated synthetic “alternatives”. Both apple and genuine leather are biodegradable, unlike the faux leathers that cause evident harm to our environments.
· Although so many enjoy the durability of real leather, the market for vegan-friendly products and materials is also huge so it’s important to provide these options in the range of footwear.
· Apple leather is constructed by blending the leftovers from the fruit juice and compote industry with polyester and since this plastic can be easily recycled, this sustainable ‘leather’ material comes from completely renewable resources so it easily beats other leather alternatives that do not biodegrade or ones that cannot be recycled.
· By supporting the local business of Poland, including leather tanneries, and also giving funds to wildlife protection programmes such as WWF Polska and Liga Ochrony Przyrody (LOP). This helps to maintain and support the country in two obvious ways: the domestic leather industry and also the native wildlife.
What kind of research did I do?
The native fauna of Poland including the reptiles, rodents, amphibians, birds, owls, Acciptriformes & Falconiformes, fish, carnivores, bats, even-toad ungulates, and cetaceans.
Throughout these fauna research pages, there is also information such as the animals’ conservation statuses, where they can be found, and their key characteristics.
For the research that looks into Poland’s native flora, there are four separate pages that focus on each of the country’s ecoregions (Baltic Mixed Forests, Carpathian Montane Conifer Forests, Central European Mixed Forests, and Western European Broadleaf Forests), which all are the homes to their very own unique flowers, trees, fungi, and so on.
Since this project has a focus on athletic footwear, it looks into the best of the best sports shoes for the track, trail or urban running and the elements such as carbon plates, removable spikes, and lightweight, flexible uppers that runners of the customer profile are looking for in their shoes.
The sketching process
To meet the criteria of building a range with track, trail, and urban running shoes, the twenty designs are strictly purposed for these rubber, unpaved or road running surfaces. The colour and material choices are heavily inspired by the researched fauna, so it was important to create patterns and shapes that best represent these animals in the footwear.
In the final six, for example, the visual characteristics of the thorny skate, white-beaked dolphin, white-tailed eagle, gray wolf, osprey, and white stork are strongly represented through upper and sole design features such as the dynamic mix of sharp and smooth edges seen in the thorny skate running spike or the drastic shifts in colours seen in the white stork road running shoe.
The Final Shoe
Running spikes inspired by an aerodynamic spikey fish makes for a very marketable pair of shoes. With the use of very environmentally conscious materials such as apple leather and recycled polyester plus the carbon fibre plate embedded into the sole, the running spike becomes even more marketable for the target audience.
The making of the final shoe
How the sole was made: The sole consists of two layers of rubber resin which I had laser cut to achieve the smooth-edged shapes and perfectly sized holes for the spikes to fit into. With the carbon fibre sheet inserted in between, these layers were joined with neoprene adhesive and then sprayed with white paint.
How the upper was made: The grey areas around the heel of the shoe are made from chrome-tanned cow leather and add structural support to the posterior whereas the forepart is mostly constructed with Öko-Tex® Marathon and Softshell as these are extremely lightweight yet windproof, waterproof, and breathable. Although these are not standard shoemaking materials, they worked well for producing the prototype without any trouble with the lasting process while providing the desired aesthetic that the PU-coated polyester materials of the factory-manufactured version would have.
Shoe Advertisements
What inspired them? Shoe advertising in the late stages of the 20th century or the ‘Golden Age’ was incredibly unique as brands tended to market their products as highly superior to the competitors’ and, a lot of the time, the comparisons weren’t at all subtle. Some of these print adverts include very little text, opting for a more minimal style such as the first ‘Thorny Skate’ ad, however, others such as this Asics print advert from the ‘90s included longer descriptions as to why the footwear is worth investing in and this informative format can be seen in the second advert with the large photo of Hel, Poland.
Thank you very much for reading the blog and please feel free to leave any comments and feedback for me to read! If you would like, use this link to view the full project: https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:0387222e-4178-37f4-a8a6-91875e29c73b
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