ENDLESS CREATIVITY.....

It can be Fused, Waxed, Sintered, Z-Corped, Polyjeted, Glassed, Cemented or Resined. 3D printing represents for sure the next product frontier. 

Not alone, the principle is now in the hands of Generative designers or inverted engineers whose are blending together the mathematics, the architecture and the engineering processes into one object. 

Softwares are evolving to catch up with the technology. Autodesk and PTC to name a few. Well known traditional printer manufacturers are feeding the market with time challenging machines. 

Countless university programs are also creating their own systems. Not to mention the never ending growth of material variety, chemical formulas and soon Nano elements in duo or trio.....endless projection of endless creativity. Every industry class is concerned, lets have a look at the footwear now.

Lets split the visit in two distinctive chapters, one for Fashion and later below one dedicated to performance. What you see above is almost a literal use of the parametric for a piece of footwear, meshes or crossings are kind of expected in filling the shape of an high heel shoe.

Footwear /3D printed evolved dramatically this year 2015 by the industrialization of this process at UNITED NUDE a UK brand.  Not only Polymers but also metal parts are considered.

The 2015 Design week in Milano featured a joint venture in between United Nude and renown Designers in 3D promoted exhibition. The work done so far is wonderful. Again, creativity is endless as far as the products can be crafted without any dampening management. The challenge in Performance tools is way more demanding....

A bit of History: In Performance products, if I believe the retrieved patents, Nike has been the first to investigate in footwear 3D printing and generative design back somewhere in between 2005 and 2006. 3 top athletes been given a post sport fully 3D printed mule at the 2008 Olympics: Asafa Powell, Kobe Bryant and Liu Xiang. 

A careful look at the shoe show similar structures of the Beijing bird nest stadium. Nike never communicated this chapter and pictures are hard to find on internet as well.

I found another, this time, communicated By nike, development exposé of the air rejuven8 introduced in 2008. I also found the patent description with every detail (thanks to Google Patents). 

The process was so close to 3D printed fabrics (bag and dress) that came the hope to see the introduction in 2008 of a full printed upper or why not a full shoe made out of the principle.  

Sometimes hopes come too early my friend. the shoe turned out to be a regular post gridded Air Kukini TPU material with a removable sock like upper, everything bonded over a regular type of midsole. 

Patience..... nothing until 2012..... No commercialized footwear item with a 3D printed part, no performance product either given to any athlete until....

.....NEWBALANCE. 

In fact, NewBalance is the first manufacturer to endorse an athlete with a performing 3 D printed plate. NewBalance is also the first to showcase a potential midsole/foam fully printed (google source) with Partner EOS.

2013, Nike becomes the second manufacturer to endorse an athlete with a performing 3 D printed plate. and the first to make it available in a limited edition. 2014.....2015......nothing .......I can't believe in a try only. NB and NIKE have in public, recorded several job adds for generative designers. 

3D base material is cost and time expensive. I don't believe in a mass construction of items like the one above for tons of reason I do not have room enough to bore people off.

True story: People know how much I appreciated my managers at Adidas. But I felt a little alone in 2003 when I sketched those, having in mind the set of an unexpected internal footwear show based on technology called at that time Stereolithography. 

I planned to make and Polyjet print those hollowed midsole in order to show a potential future of the footwear industry.  But in 2003, People seemed to be everything but ready to waste their time on it. 

I did this in 2009, when finally the subject became a late company matter....those are just ideas, made in few hours, without any target price or consumer kind in mind no function either, trust me, there is here nothing realistic in this design iteration.

I am so eager to see what the sector will offer us in the future. There is no doubt, we are at the real beginning of an endless creativity.

UNEXPECTED FALL 2004

Another true story, the one that happened to some of us, you know when there is an open window in your brain in what the future can be. This chapter states exactly this feeling I had back in 2001 when I started to project a vision of the performance footwear with a 5 years scope. 

I named it Unexpected fall 04 and sent it to my friends at Nike. Why Nike? Because this brand always been at the pinnacle of innovation in this field. Will follow 4 chapters, Running Lifestyle, Running Performance, Sports Wear and Training. 12 models.

Running Lifestyle: I always liked the Nike Catalogue page layouts and decided to communicate the content as if people in the company hold their probable future. Everything is invented, the products, the constructions, the arguments, the names etc.... same for the other following categories.

For the running iterations, One star is selected, a 360 degree air max called Max Opulence. Above the inspiration board

The product shows the blend of 3 distinctive "so called" technologies. A hollowed chassis in which 360 pods of air are inserted. The pods are the likes of the fall 04 introduced Nike free in a 360 manner as per the air max 2006.

First generation of Nike free launched in fall 2004

first air max 360 lauched in 2006

Running Performance catalogue page.

Running Performance: Already Tired of layers we were finding in shoe making at that time, I introduced the idea of thermo-forming upper, as if the shoe was tailored to your foot morphology. 

Impossible details of the star product. Few years later I realized how difficult this shoe is in term of construction. But I still believe today in thermo forming.

Sports Wear inspiration page.

Sports Wear catalogue page where you can see the association of full grain leather and translucency (see below). 3D crafted fabrics and embossed jacquards, are already considered in the vision. Molded EVA with integrated air max unit...or 3D heel EVA replacement of usual integrated plastic heel counter. Some of the options have been lately introduced in the market in summer 2015 like the latest KD8 Basketball shoe.

Speaking about transparency and full grain Leather combination,  I have been almost in synchrony with Designer A cooper who designed the shoe in 2001 and saw its introduction in 2003. He answered and designed a basketball icon, I suggested a sleep-on sportswear daily companion with a close to the foot full zoom air visibility.

NIKE KD 8   2015 and its heelcounter / midsole extended 

Training inspiration page.

Training catalogue page where you can see the association of thermo forming base upper over the air systems, the return of the air 180 expressed in a different way,  and a funky version of EVA midsole that reminds of a NikeFree individual pods. 

We are almost 15 years later, and I still believe this small exercise of projection was worth making it. The reality turned the product concepts way simpler than I thought, while I am still surprised to see similar solution hitting the market later on. 

The reason is simple, creative Ideas are hung over our heads. I just picked some of them.  

still today.........

ALL ABOUT STUDS (part 1)

This picture alone tells the story of one of the longest scientific opinion conflict when we speak about studded football shoes. Whats more efficient? Rounded stud or Bladed studs. This ever unresolved question rolled us for a long debate which, (can you believe?) lasted 50 years.

The first battle saw the victory of the Rounded studs Era. Here in picture, the last piece of art developed with an accurate eye of Adolf Dassler, the founder.

The second Battle defeated the Round studs and gave birth to the blade studs era from 1996 to 2010.

Some brands could not decide wether Round or Blades was the right answer. They implemented both of them in an hybrid functional manner: soft and firm ground. Lotto zhero gravity.

Ah The blades: if you are coming from another planet, and see Bladed shoes, you might imagine a sport where movements are generally made in a lateral motion, a bit like a Crossfit specialty on grass only......


But Football/Soccer is everything but only lateral motion. This is this functional context that Harald, Jürgen and I started to question in 2008.

Looking for a way to accelerate the game, I did a converged study in between soccer and track and field sprint discipline.

We looked at the stud placement in forefoot that compromise the two sports. from an exo-sourced document, some of you might recognize.

Once the position fixed, we declared the acceleration the cutting and the breaking zones. I analyzed the zones according to these two maps obtained from another exo-sourced document, in Google Patent, from the Mizuno stud study made available for all.

A new generation of stud is born, semi round at the top and triangular at the base for an increased 3 directional traxion pattern. 

In orange are the studs and shapes, fruits of our research, Adidas The Dassler Project,  the best ever recorded traxion at Adidas in history. 

In yellow is the modified pattern and shaped studs that characterize the new era of triangular studs at Adidas, the F50 limit launched in 2010.  no more Rounds, no more Blades.....but Deltas.

We kept our focus in improving the delta franchise with medical support in order to create in 2014, the Zonic system introduced the year of the world cup in Brazil and still implemented in 2015 in Messi's signature shoe and the late X Chaos line

I spotted different aficionados of the delta studs. I would love to hear or read what decided these 7 brands to opt for the deltas. Unfortunately the information is not public. But I can certify it, all of them came out after 2011.

Harald G, Harry K, Jürgen W, Stefan S, marco M, Dirk M, Helmut H, Bob K, Martin L, Jamal N Volker S, and few others became the devoted makers of the third generation of studs that are proven to reduce athletes injuries.

Sometimes, when I wonder why I am doing this job, this article looks like a good reminder.

Ah....FIVE FINGERS !

Generally, when we speak Five Fingers in our field, One brand comes in mind. Invented in 1999 by Robert Fliri, a design student who wanted to "figure out a way to move around in nature better." Vibram FiveFingers were developed and introduced in 2005.

Okay, I won't bore you with any biomechanics, nor good or bad, neither minimalism nor lawsuits from or against the brand Vibram. Wikipedia and running forums seem to be the right addresses for all of this.

Even if I would, I could have mentioned the beautiful craftmanship of those Vibram shoes, the precise patern engineering whitnessing through quality the time spent in between the first prototype to the first product delivery.

I could have written about how Vibram made afficionados along the way.... Adidas quality is certainly out of question, but  shape wise, it looks to me difficult to paralell the Italian/american patern engineering secrets.

I could have also spent time writing about another Vibram's friend FILA and....

I could at least spend more time speaking of this second skin, fully made in urethane or TPU and injected by our british friends at INOV8.

In fact, The reason of this article lies in a personal discovery when I visited the imperial war Museum in London in july 2012. In theWWII section, precisely in the british/japanese sector, I discovered the unbelievable piece of footwear.

Having lost the picture of my discovery, I ask the courtesy of my Good Friend Yves, to investigate for me the mystery of the WWII five finger shoe. Here's what he sent to me.

In the field the royal secret agents were also given these overshoes (above) to disguise their footprints. They were especially useful in the Pacific where Japanese path-finders would mistake the prints for barefoot natives.

Thank you Yves for your support and fast inquiery.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2416030/Christine-Granville-Britains-female-special-agent-paved-way-liberation-France.html#ixzz3j6zUS0s0

The story doesn't tell if student Robert Fliri visited this section of the Imperial war Museum...

WHEN I DON'T KNOW....BUT FRIENDS ARE HELPING.

This is a story about alpine ski boots. I am a bad skier but I always been attracted by the techy style of ski boots. My good friend Bob Monahan is a talented skier. Back in 2010, we spent time together speaking about what skiers generaly would apreciate for their boots. The thing started and became what follows below.

Another great friend of mine, Kota Tsukamoto and talented ski boot designer at Tecnica looked at the outcome and gave me some non confidential comments on how the shoe features could benefit to some fearless skiers. 

Among the manufacturers, I thought the Austrian Head would be the right pick. This brand looks to me at the pinacle of performance and precision.  Plus this is a tribute to my inspirator,  Bob and Head being his favorite brand.

As a beginner, It took me bit of documentary researches on how the boots where made,  I found the best teacher through the documents available at GOOGLE PATENTS.

A study based on boot shapes and analogies to product or automotive design. 

There is to me no project without values or key words, neither analogies nor  defined objectives.

Cold Feet answer.

Features

Early sketches

The Result. A boot for performers, with a concern for thermo regulation and comfort and little other improvements.  a counter answer to those who think being an athlete means training while  accepting pain and sufferings.

Even if this boot remains a fiction, its been designed with the scope of these massifs in Alaska, where Bob loves to descent few minutes after being heli ported.