Our Design and Development Process

 

Initial Concepts:

We generate quick drawings, based on your brief, to illustrate concepts and design aesthetics. These loose designs allow us to quickly make an effective plan to move forward through the design process. When developing a new technology, a few rounds devoted to construction concepts are suggested to work out one or more possible solutions before moving on to aesthetics. We take pride in developing both beautiful and functional footwear to capture your vision and your customers.

Design Development:

Once a design direction is selected, we move forward developing creative executions to further refine your product and concept. Through a back and forth process with you, our client, we are able to achieve designs that are crafted to fit all of your needs and requirements.

Design Finalization:

After tuning and refinement, the selected design is executed in photo-realistic renderings to show what the finished product will look like.

Color Study:

We execute the selected design in multiple color combinations. These studies are crucial to explore the different graphic possibilities allowed by the pattern and to create a new, fresh, and different look. These different color options aid in material selection later in the process.

Last Development:

A last is a foot-like shape that a shoe is formed around. The last is crucial to the fit and feel of the finished shoe. We will work with your existing last company or with our last building partners develop the fit you are looking for. Fit test shoes will be created from this last to determine if any further adjustments are necessary. Once the last has been tuned and finalized, upper and sole development can begin.

Tech Package:

We create a technical drawings of the sole and other molded components to be incorporated into the shoe. This drawing will convey, in minute detail, to the factory how we want our molded components to be executed. The factory will create its own technical drawings and send them to us for confirmation. This back and forth communication is vital. Each factory works in a different way and this process allows the factory to suggest methods that work best for their factory while still achieving our desired look and function.

Material Specification:

We specify each of the different materials to be used on your shoe. Depending the desired function, feel, and look of the shoe, we will use our extensive experience and materials library to select materials and treatments. When necessary, we can even work with different manufactures to develop custom materials for your shoes.

Prototyping and Sample Tuning:

Through a back and forth process with factory, we develop prototypes of the finalized design and refine them until we develop the correct execution of each component and the shoe as a whole. Each of these prototypes allow for experimentation to aid in the final selection of materials, color, and finishing choices for production shoes.

Final Product:

Once the final prototype has been selected and confirmed, production can begin. We can oversee production and make sure that the final products are being executed correctly We can also assist with packaging and any other marketing materials that you may need.