Nov 25, 20214 min read

How It's Made: 'Kannik' Boot

The basis for this ‘QUAGGA’ project is, essentially, to combine three different themes (an activity, category, and technology). From this, you can create a completely new and original footwear path to base the project on.

There are endless possibilities and ideas that can come from selecting any three of the fifteen choices. For example, a rodeo boot based around the military category with morphing technology capabilities is something we probably haven’t ever come across before.

Iditarod Trail, Sport, and Modularity are the three themes I chose to base my project around. The Iditarod trail is an annual sled dog race that takes place in Alaska. From Anchorage, mushers and their own group of dogs will travel 938 miles to Nome, a small coastal city. The footwear these mushers usually wear during this sporting event is usually heavily lined waterproof boots including caribou boots from Sorel or even ‘Bunny Boots’ which were issued for the US military during the Korean war (1950-1953) (National Army Museum).

To properly find out ways I can incorporate the sport category into my designing, I first had to carry out research into what is popular today. In the following photos you can find some examples of today’s sports footwear:

Finally, to form the solid DNA of the project, modularity had to be added so I looked into WGSN’s trend service for inspiration. Lots of different ideas came to mind at this point in my research as the 2022/23 trend forecasts have lots of imagery and conceptual designs about material usage, ways to bring in modularity into fashion and footwear. The great idea of modular design is to allow users of the product to utilise its functions to suit their own personal needs, whether it be keeping cool, retaining heat, storing extra accessories, and so on. A modular feature could be as simple as having interchangeable bungee cord tags for zips on a runway-style boot or it could be as complex as having an attachable outsole piece that perfectly fits onto the bottom of your shoe.

With the Iditarod, Sport, and Modularity combination, my main idea was to have shoes or boots that are equally equipped for snow as they are for running or general sports activities in any given rough terrains. To be considered modular design, the shoes can, for example, have detachable metal spikes from the outsole, fur panels that can be snapped on or off, waterproof layers that can be attached to the shoe itself, or even removable bags/ pouches.

From these pages of sketched shoe concepts, I picked out a final range consisting of 5 unique styles:

The top left concept features bungee cord eyelets placed on the white/ yellow ochre vamp, nylon straps that lay on both inside and outside of the shoe, a rubber toe cap, suede counter, and a simple sole unit. All in all, this has the silhouette of a sportier version of an Iditarod boot you may have already seen but, looking at the concept in full, you see a very utilitarian-looking sneaker/ boot hybrid with more outdoorsy elements that hold down the design.

Just to the right of this design, is a mid-cut sneaker concept that features a similar colour scheme to the previous shoe, has the same minimalist sports sole unit, cord style lacing, a variety of eyelets and fastenings, and pull tabs for a utilitarian experience.

On the bottom left, we have another mid-cut sneaker which features a collar that can be attached via magnet strips that are fitted at its base and also along the shoe’s topline. This way, the user can remove or join the component without any fiddly fastenings. Speed hooks are featured here as the top eyelets, paying homage to traditional boot and hiking-wear designs.

Next in this range is a high-top shoe which took the approach of using snap closures to attach an extra component, what I would like to call a fur coat. Adding this design to the final five definitely added some needed diversity for consumers as it fits perfectly between the sporty low or mid-cut sneaker and the shin-height boot. The rubber components met with natural-coloured leathers of this shoe creates some athletic/ durable aesthetic.

For the final boot, I wanted to create a boot of a familiar silhouette style but with modernized componentry so, for example, the quarter of the boot is made from Gore-Tex fabric, something that’s being seen more and more often in footwear today. Looking all the way back to traditional ‘Mukluk’ boots, many feature intricate designs even on their collars and that’s where this boot took its inspiration from. Triple and double stitch rows can be seen securing the componentry together for a mighty utilitarian appearance and bungee lacing that travel through nylon straps and bungee cord eyelet loops ultimately closes off this concept.

Here you can see the final design I chose to take main stage from this point onwards:

In a professional setting and once a shoe concept is ready to be turned into a prototype, a specification package must be made up and presented to the production team so they know exactly how you need the shoe to be manufactured. It needs to be as simple as you reading an IKEA manual so every little detail and measurement must be highlighted, including the thickness of thread. Here are just a few pages I’ve taken directly from my sketchbook:

I wanted the sole unit to be made as accurately as possible, and, with a short project deadline of seven weeks, I had spoken to Bob at Angell Patterns Ltd in Leicester to see if my idea for a sole unit could possibly be made up, and, referencing my tech pack, the wooden sole unit prototype was ready, and, as a finishing touch, I added a few light coats of white spray paint followed by a speckled grey.