Jun 18, 20226 min read

Japanese Domestic Market- Driving Shoes

The Final Major Project involves a self-negotiated brief which module staff agree on if it ensures to be academically rigorous, broad-reaching for research purposes and has potential for excellent aesthetic impact. This project was an opportunity to demonstrate “your design talents and capability to the footwear world when you graduate” and to “pursue a topic of personal interest, technology or design movement”. This was the ultimate project to gather all of our design knowledge gained over previous modules to produce a comprehensive body of work in the form of a design portfolio and three prototypes.

The idea behind my project was to create a range of driving-applicable footwear inspired by some of the most well-known and desired cars from the Japanese Domestic Market, from the 1970s to the 2010s. The footwear developed from this project represents the cars from these eras of JDM by compiling key features from iconic models.

What actually is the Japanese Domestic Market (JDM)? If a car is referred to as being ‘JDM’, it means that the model was designed specifically for the Japanese market, and not to be exported. Not every Japanese vehicle is JDM because some cars made in the country are manufactured with the sole purpose of being exported to other nations such as the U.S.A. Since JDM cars are manufactured to remain in Japan, it can often be very difficult to import them legally and safely and this is just one of the reasons why Japanese Domestic Market vehicles, especially the older models, can be known to be rare.

While there are endless opportunities to take direct inspiration from specific car models, the other main aspect here was to conceptually launch my own brand inspired by some of the most successful Japanese car manufacturers.

To go alongside this design project was a 4000-word essay that holds some relevance to the decided topic, so I decided to write about one of my favourite JDM cars. Titled “How Did The RX-7 Become a JDM Cultural Icon?”, the essay includes information on Japan’s difficulties within the automotive industry throughout and after the Second World War, how many manufacturers looked towards the developments of the thriving western market, and the journey from ground zero to becoming a Nation known for innovative and fuel-efficient road vehicles. After laying this necessary groundwork, this essay goes on to focus on Mazda designers’ creative thinking behind the three generations of the RX-7, how the iconic Mazda changed and evolved from the first ‘Savanna’ model to the most recent ‘FD’, how car magazines, online networks, the Fast and Furious franchise, and social media pushed the popularity of Mazda’s RX-7, but finally the essay explores how the RX-7 shocked the motorsport world by outperforming the best cars of the West, gaining great interest from the Americas and Europe in Mazda and Japan’s automotive industry as a whole.

The JDM car research

In the 1970s, Toyota and Mazda created some of the most unique JDM models we have ever seen, including Mazda’s ’71 Savanna and ’78 RX-7, both of which are powered by Wankel rotary engines, and Toyota’s ’70 Corolla E20, ’71 Celica, and the 1975 Sprinter Coupe Trueno 1600 GT, however Mitsubishi, Nissan and Honda also released incredible cars that enthusiasts still love today.

In the following decade, sleek and elegant designs turned into sportier, more aggressive-looking cars. Honda, Mazda, and Nissan develop and build on previous models including the Prelude, RX-7, and Fairlady Z.

The essence of JDM in the ‘90s was to replace sharp edges with smooth lines, build more aerodynamic cars and introduce greatly developed, game-changing technologies. Subaru introduced on the most iconic JDM cars of all time, the WRX, Mitsubishi started telling a fantastic story with the Lancer Evolution, Nissan came out with two truly sought-after beasts that every driver wanted and all enthusiasts want now, Honda introduced two JDM giants, the Integra Type R and especially the NSX that looked like absolutely nothing else ever created, the Supra, a thing of legend, was released by Toyota in ’93, and the world finally got to see the third-generation RX-7.

Honda went on to produce a few very iconic models in the early 2000s that were synonymous with Hollywood movies, showrooms, and local JDM car meets. Mitsubishi released a very aggressive-looking Lancer Evo, Mazda had their Roadster (AKA MX-5), Subaru released a very exclusive and bold model, while Nissan started something truly special with some of the sportiest designs the motoring world has ever seen.

In the next decade, Nissan took their sporty beasts and turned them into even greater pieces of art. The 2010s also saw Lexus release the LFA, one of the boldest bodies of the decade. While Toyota, Mitsubishi, and Honda also released some monstrously fast cars, Mazda came out with the 2016 Roadster which received several awards for its performance and design.

After having looked at the meanings behind the names of Mazda, Toyota, Subaru, Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan, and Honda, I was inspired to also name my brand after something nature-oriented and very relevant to the nation of Japan. With some naming their companies after crops, star clusters, or water chestnuts, I decided to have this new brand named after a native Japanese bird, the pacific swift. In Japanese, this is called ‘amatsubame’.

After having looked at how the logos of some of the biggest JDM companies had developed from the 1970s to the 2010s, I took the same design development structure of starting with a basic, monochrome logo, then for the next logo adding the brand name, and finally creating a two-tone logo to represent the start of the 21st century.

Since these JDM-inspired shoes have to be able to function as top-quality driving footwear, I had to look into the footwear styles drivers already love to wear. This is where I had picked up on the common features found in these driving applicable sneakers such as thin soles, low-cut uppers, and flexible materials.

Trend research is very important to ensure that the designs will be marketable and even relevant to the intended release season. In this project, the range is conceptualised to release in Spring/Summer 2023 so the trend research we see here is taken from appropriate WGSN forecasts. It’s also incredibly important to select trends that really represent the idea behind the project so, here, for example, we can find clear links between these ‘Colour-free’, ‘Golden hour’, ‘Monochrome basics’, or ‘Flat matte finish’ trends and some very eye-catching features such as paint colour, interior fabrics, or even much smaller details found in Japanese cars from the 1970s to the 2010s.

All of this previous research had allowed me to produce a Material Research board that refers greatly to the trends, materials that competitors use, and the prominent colours found on some of the most iconic JDM cars throughout the decades.

Having the cars on the sketch pages really helped to take direct inspiration from them and apply that to the footwear. To represent the JDM cars in the designs, I highlighted the cars’ key features such as aggressive headlights or grand spoilers and reinterpreted or amplified them as componentry for the shoes and this, for example, can be seen here on the first sketch page where the top shoe takes inspiration from the Lancer Evolution X with the aggressive grille being represented by the front part of the sole unit and the sleek shape of the counter representing the dynamic sides of the car’s body.

Since the previous sketch pages only present the outside view, I went on to pick out three shoes that I believe to be the more marketable and representative of the Amatsubame brand and then developed inside and rear views for all of the final three designs. The majority of the time, most of the fancy embellishments and branding elements will be placed onto the outside of sneakers since this is what we see more of. This also allows for a reduction in manufacturing time and cost since factories do not have to repeat the same processes for the inside of the shoe. This idea is what I also used for my final three designs.

The marketing side of the project focuses on billboards, pages in car magazines, Instagram, and bus stop advertisements since these are areas that naturally bring a lot of attention from car enthusiasts.

Spec packs must be developed to show factories how the shoes are to be made. Colour palettes help manufacturers to directly match Pantone colours. Material Boards show the exact materials that are to be used for the construction of the footwear. Next, it’s important to show the proper measurements of the componentry so that they can be cut to actual size. Cross-sections of sole units are necessary for factories to accurately produce the soles from the inside and out with any of the smart cushioning technologies.

Since this project has three final shoes, and not too much time to create the prototypes, the best method of creating them was to cut out the components of all three, treat all of the edges of all components from the three shoes, complete all of the stitching of all shoes, lasting all of the shoes, and so on. Creating the soles was the final step and this wasn’t easy. I decided for this project to create the sole units from clay. This took a great chunk of time of the making process since this was the first time I have ever worked with clay, so it involved lots of trial and error but what I had found out was that it is a great material to carve when either soft or dry. To create the general shapes of the sole units, I carved them when soft but after having let them dry, I used a Dremel tool to engrave the smaller details.