Footwear for one of the toughest endurance events on the planet.
This was an exploration exercise aimed at creating a footwear concept that would answer the needs of swimrun (SR) athletes, specifically those taking part in ÖTILLÖ. The project was completed in 4 days, from initial ideation to mid-fidelity rendering.
Race photography by Jakob Edholm and Nadja Odenhage on Flickr.
Race photography by Jakob Edholm and Nadja Odenhage on Flickr.
Before going into any form of sketching or ideating, the first step was to understand the needs of the athlete and the context of the sport. Quick research was done via online articles and forums, those findings and my thoughts are laid out below. These then culminated in jump-off questions that I kept in the back of my mind while developing the concept.
Sketching alone was insufficient in figuring out different aspects of proportion and form: I needed to get hands-on with it. I taped together the midsole and outsole from an existing Nike Streak LT running shoe with a last to create a Frankenstein shoe form.
Wrapping over the taped up form with a layer of clear packing tape allowed me to quickly and easily have a clean slate after each sketch. This was crucial during my ideation process, where I would jump back and forth between sketching on the last and then back onto paper. Above are some intermediate iterations, while below is the final tape drawing I used as a sketch underlay for my renders.
