I tried to illustrate the shoe from every angle to maximize the accuracy of the physical product. All sketches were done in Adobe Illustrator.

So I had a design. I was also heavily active on LinkedIn. LinkedIn actually served as a great place to speak with manufacturers. I joined numerous footwear manufacturing and design groups and posted my request to have a custom sneaker made. I posted a few times over the course of two weeks and to my excitement, received replies from multiple reps.

LinkedIn also served as a great place to gather email addresses. I crafted a similar message and emailed it to any email I could scrape from the LinkedIn groups. 

Using LinkedIn for networking was a huge part of getting the project launched.

Working on materials and colors.

Voila! After numerous back and forth with the (first) manufacturer we have one finished sneaker. Well, kind of. The design was followed closely but they used (what I determined to be) a racquetball or squash midsole/outsole. 

The use of the sport sole ultimately turned out to be beneficial however, as I got to see the shoe in a stylish, but sport-ready package.

Unfortunately, the producer only sent me one shoe and it was too small for my foot so I never got to do any active testing or model the sneaker.

Top-down view of the moccasin style toebox. They went with their own colorway (Ha!) They also opted for the outsole with a rather wide front lip. 

The design called for much more narrow lip like a running sneaker. I have to imagine that they produced what they could with spare materials since they deviated significantly from, seemingly, clear cut aspects of the design. 

In the 2nd edition of the full draft (below) the sneaker received a redesign of the heel.

Visual and verbal updates sent back to the manufacturer to maximize the accuracy of the desired modifications. 

An updated 2nd Edition of the design with the heel re-done and additions for accuracy. After unsuccessfully working out the modification needed with the first manufacturer I opted to try a second company.

Something about seeing the technical designs from the manufacturer made me really excited! This manufacturer was highly responsive and attentive to my needs. A++

No idea what any of this means besides materials and color.

Starting to get an idea of what to expect in the mail. I had to do a money order through the bank to China to pay for the samples. After transferring the funds I had no idea if the samples would actually arrive. First samples cost ~$250 to produce and ship.

BAM! They actually got the design pretty close, but they produced a platform shoe-esque variant of what should be a low-top cross trainer. The plastic heel on the midsole was also turned into a black piece of fabric.

Additionally, the outsole had ZERO grip. These things would have caused an injury wearing anywhere besides the sidewalk.

Back to the drawing board with edits!

Here is the midsole/outsole that was decided upon. Can you guess the inspiration behind this style-direction? This sneaker was heavily influenced by the Visvim FBT. 

I learned during the process that what you want and what is available are two different things. Fortunately, the manufacturer had a mold with the plastic heel accent, contrasting outsole, and contrasting front lip as seen on many running sneakers.

This sole wasn't nearly as performance ready as the first sample, but it made for an attractive look that stayed true to the concept designs.

After sending edits of the platform shoes, the manufacturer absolutely NAILED their second go at the design!

The heel looks much better, but ultimately needs one last design re-tooling to enhance its dynamism.

The manufacturers fabric choice was rather bulky, confirming that the material choice moving forwards will be driven by being lightweight, thin, and responsive.

Additionally, they were unable to produce the moccasin look and feel as they stitched the flaps to the upper and stitched the fabric running the length of the shoes into two sections rather than one.

In summary, I learned A TON about product design and manufacturing during this process AND received two pairs of ready-for-use sneakers.

For any questions that weren't answered here, please feel free to send me a private message! 

Thank you for reading!!