Every year, 23 billion pairs of shoes are produced worldwide, of which less than 5% are recycled or reused. The problem is that shoes are usually made from a mixture of many different materials such as rubber, leather, textiles, plastic, etc., which are glued and sewn together. This makes it difficult to separate and recycle the materials, so they often end up in landfill.
The average person buys at least one new pair of shoes every year. Children in the first years of life in particular outgrow their shoes within a few months and need new footwear much more frequently. By developing a shoe that allows the user to easily replace worn components, the life of the product will be much longer and the parts can be recycled more easily.
The idea was to develop a system that connects the inner and outer soles without using an adhesive. By punching the fabric with a matching pattern, the soles can clamp the fabric in between.
Prototypes were created with an FDM printer using TPU filament (shore hardness 95A) to simulate normal sole softness. Various patterns and shapes were explored to find a secure sole connection.
The final connection features include a slight undercut, resulting in a stronger grip.
We explored several shapes in paper and fabric to find a shoe pattern with a minimal number of parts that would fit into the interlocking system. In order to provide the fabric shoe with greater structure and stability, a double-layered canvas fabric from 100% cotton was chosen.
The developed interlocking system offers many possibilities for the overall footwear design.
Julia Mori
This project was developed together with Julia Mori as an Applied Research Project during her internship.
