A brief documentation of my first project at Imperial College London, Design Engineering - The module is titled 'Human Centred Design Engineering'.
Every year, around 23 billion shoes are made of which 300 million are disposed of in the UK alone. Often there is a large bill of materials with complex manufacturing processes associated with the production of shoes which in turn makes them difficult to recycle properly and biodegrade. What is more, massive overconsumption in the shoe industry as a result of people buying several shoes for different purposes, styles or function leads to an influx of waste eventually dumped in landfill sites.
Introducing the FOLDS shoe, a sustainable product which aims to reduce the issue outlined above by creating a shoe which lends itself to many styles and functions rolled into one. This project draws inspiration from the art form of origami in that the entire shoe is made from a singular net and sheet of material, thus cutting down on manufacturing difficulty and costs. By simply folding down flaps integrated onto the shoe, the user can go from high, to mid to low-top, effortlessly changing its style and function.
Several hours of brainstorming, prototyping in the lab, blender software rendering, co-design sessions with users, user research and market research have truly paid off and I am tremendously proud of my team’s efforts and have thoroughly enjoyed working with them on this module.
Music source: Alexvnder - Fly away