HISTORICAL RESEARCH
Based on historical research that we did, people used to take pride in their trainers and the aesthetic of trainers was a very important factor. This love for trainers was especially large when popular trainers began to surface such as the Nike Air Jordans (although the love for these trainers are slowly making an effective return today). We want people to be able to express themselves and their creativity with the use of our app, whether its for a nostalgic effect or just to have some fun.
ERA OF SNEAKER HEADS
A sneaker head is known as one who is very informed, collects, trades or admires sneakers as a hobby. Sneaker-heads are highly experienced and have an overall high knowledge of sneakers. The Sneaker head culture grew in the1980’s and it contributed towards two major sources which is basketball and the growth of hip - pop music. In 1985 when the release of Micheal Jordan’s AirJordan took place it really began to influence people on what type of sneakers they wore. It was all about imitating their idols, being fresh and proving yourself. Young pupils use to battle about the one with the most recent cool fresh kicks.
Sneakers have become an important part of Hip-Hop (primarily Pumas, Nike, and Adidas) and even rock n roll (Converse, Macbeth) cultures since the 1970s. Hip hop artists sign million dollar deals with major brands such as Nike, Adidas, or Puma to promote their shoes
The growth of online retailing and auction sites has provided sneaker collectors with new methods to find the rarest shoes. Some shops ,websites and events offer rare and exclusive sneakers for consumers.
We want our application to replicate a digital version of the exclusive and unique feel that stores provide users with when they release exclusive sneakers for sneaker heads. We want our users to be able to design a sneaker that is unique and personal to them, giving them an exclusive feel.
BACKGROUND RESEARCH
We made sure that our research was quite broad in terms of content but very precise & detailed when it came to the actual content of the research. For example we looked into various application types, some to do specifically with 3D environments, some with trainer customisation and some with drawing/editing applications. We chose to research into the likes of NikeID and miAdidas to look into the design features available for users and what types of materials and colours they provided on the application. We also looked into the comparison between luxury and normal mass customisation of shoes with NikeID, miAdidas and Farfetch: mySwear.
We looked at applications like photoshop and the paint program to have a realistic idea of what user interface features we should include within our application, this would be in terms of the certain buttons that users can press and what interactions they can do with their sample/prototype.
We also looked at some companies (NEKEDI & PENSOLE) that either design trainers or teach others how to.
NIKEiD, MiAdidas & mySwear
nikeID is a service provided by nike to allow the customisation of nike trainers by customers. It allows you to chose a design of your own dependant of colour, text and fabrics.
Miadidas allows a similar principle of the customisation of their trainers, in this case allowing the customer to chose between ‘start with a blank’, ‘pick a theme’ or ‘chose a creator’. This allows them to either completely start from scratch or design a shoe based on the design of an already customised shoe.
mySwear is a result of extensive research, a rich, high heritage of artisan craftsmanship and passion for personalised footwear. In comparison to nikeID and miAdidas, mySwear is much more for high end branded sneakers/trainers rather than streetwear and training trainers that nike and Adidas both produce.
Nike and Adidas both have a similar experience with the customisation of their trainers where as you can really feel a difference when interacting with far fetch’s mySwear brand. The interaction is much more luxurious allowing customers to chose from various types of luxury fabrics such as crocodile leather.
mySwear is specific to luxury shoe design whereas miAdidas and nike id provides lower budget designs and materials. This is due to the brands having different target audiences and this is something we need to consider when making our interactive shoe designer. What target audience are we going to go for and how will this affect the aesthetic of the editor?
CAD SOFTWARE
Computer aided design (C.A.D) is the use of computer systems to aid in the creation, modification, analysis or optimisation of a design. CAD software is used to increase productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve communication through documentation and create a database for manufacturing.
inkXE shoe design is a basic form of a CAD shoe design software. The designs included on the site aren’t as visually attractive as the likes of nike ID or Adidas. They have little colours to chose from and no extra materials or fabrics from what I could see on the application.
Shoe master enables designers to layout and develop work on screen, print it out and save it for future editing, allowing you to save time on drawing things out over and over again. The main thing that makes this CAD software interesting is that it really brings together another element of design that can be specifically related to shoes in general. It connects rather complex technology to create a detailed 2D or 3D design of a shoe. In my opinion that is very interesting as typically now, I think a lot of people are put off the idea of designing shoes simply due to them being unsure of what software is out for them to use.
One of the things that I dislike about this program is that it’s quite a detailed piece of software that users have to handle, therefore it can be quite hard to learn and it might take a while to get a grasp of how everything on the system works. This means that it could end up being potentially very time consuming. Although once you have spent time learning how to use the software it will become very efficient to you in the long term for users / designers. Due to this being something that we dislike about that program, we then want to adapt this aspect and ensure that we as the creators reinforce not only the idea of an aesthetically pleasing experience for our users but also a not too difficult interaction with our software
PHOTOSHOP
Photoshop is a pastor graphics editor. It can edit and compose in multiple layers and support masks. It includes several colour modes including RGB, CMYK, CIELAB etc. We decided that we thought photoshop was a reasonably simple application to use and we would like to replicate a similar structure visually and technically within our application.
NEKEDI
My brother has recently started a contemporary sportswear shoe brand, NEKEDI. I asked him a few questions in terms of how he came about what software to use for his designs and stated that his designer put forward the idea of using CAD to create the designs. Computer aided design / CAD is the main software that a lot of shoe designers use. After coming to terms with this we decided to do greater research into CAD software, specifically shoe master.
PENSOLE
Pensole is a footwear designing academy based in Portland in Oregon founded by D'wayne Edwards. D’wayne built the school basing on his life as a young boy who was very much interested in designing and designing especially footwear but almost missed his chance as a designer due to financial problems the family was facing
Their curriculums teaches students the entire product design process which includes inspiration, concept-development, design process, problem solving materials, prototyping, marketing, business, networking and branding. Our app will contain the product design process which would help the user to understand the steps to designing of a shoe is not just based on the looks but a whole other aspect is involved.
SHOE FACTS
We delved deeper into the difference between a sneaker and a shoe, reading into articles and logging down the full terminology of the anatomy of a shoe and why sneakers are so popular. We learned what makes a sneaker a sneaker and not a shoe. A shoe is a generic term for all footwear worn by men and women whereas sneakers is a term reserved especially for athletic shoes. They are typically made synthetic fabrics with rubber soles.
Once we researched and took notice of materials used on nikeID and others, the most popular fabrics for sneakers: textiles, synthetics, foam, leather/suede, rubber.
FINAL IDEA DECISIONS
We want to apply a similar structure of mass customisation similar to nike ID & miAdidas with a background software style of photoshop to create a similar output of CAD (but slightly easier to use and more visually attractive). Our final application output would be a 3D editing environment application providing our users with patterns and materials that they can chose to apply to a template of a shoe of their choice.