Hasta La Ideas

Dutch shoe brand United Nude and fashion designer Iris van Herpen have collaborated to create crescent-shaped boots for her latest ready to wear collection shown at Paris Fashion Week.

For Van Herpen‘s Autumn Winter 2014 collection titled Biopiracy, the designer and United Nude worked together on two footwear designs.

The futuristic boots curve up and around the leg, encompassing the lower leg on both sides and looping behind the knee.

A long seam runs up the front of the upper before it opens at the top, while the back of the calf is left exposed.

Seven-inch-high heels cantilever from the back of the solid base, which continues the shape of the upper to the ground.

A peep-toe boot was also created in a similar style, but with a strap that wraps around the leg at ankle height instead of at the knee.

Black, cream and white leather was used for the designs, complimenting the colours of Van Herpen’s garments.

The Biopiracy collection was shown on Tuesday during Paris Fashion Week.

This is the ninth time United Nude and Van Herpen have worked together on footwear for her shows. “Working with Iris Van Herpen is each time a big challenge for us as she pushes boundaries with ideas for things that have never been done before,” said United Nude founder Rem D Koolhaas.

Last season they created 3D-printed shoes the resembled tree roots and the year before they added spikes made from semi-precious stones within the heels of platforms.

Dezeen interviewed Koolhaas last year, when he discussed United Nude’s “extreme theatre” shoe collaborations and talked about the future of 3D-printed footwear.

Here’s some information from Iris Van Herpen and United Nude:

United Nude make shoes with Iris Van Herpen for her Biopiracy collection

United Nude collaborates with Iris Van Herpen for shoes completing her collection for its 9th consecutive time. Nevertheless this is the first time that two instead of just one design graced the runway, in the form of the Biopiracy Boot and the Biopiracy peeptoe ankle Bootie, both on staggering 7 inch tall platform cantilevered heels.

The Biopiracy collection by Iris Van Herpen emerged from astonishment of companies’ patented human genes. As part of the show, Lawrence Malstaf created art installations, which developed the impression of models being weightless and breathless. In their half-sleep they seem bio-hacked, to slow down time and energy. Iris van Herpen and Lawrence Malstaf experiment with living objects, kinetic architecture and physical interaction through fashion in installation art.

A 3D printing collaboration with Julia Koerner and Materialise fuses the artisanal with the technical to create a kinetic dress which dances as it amplifies bodily movement. The Iris Van Herpen × United Nude Boot overrules the natural shape of the foot; this makes the graphically leather moulded boots futuristic sculptures extending the legs with a new silhouette into motion. Iris Van Herpen and United Nude is a match made in heaven from day one, as they are both not afraid of breaking boundaries by experimentation with design and technology.

Rem D Koolhaas: “Working with Iris Van Herpen is each time a big challenge for us as she pushes boundaries with ideas for things that have never been done before. Collaboration partners like Iris Van Herpen and Zaha Hadid give us way for our continuation in re-inventing shoes. United Nude was originally founded on this principle with our sculptural sandals just over ten years ago; breaking the rules of conventional ladies shoe-making, not for the sake if breaking them, but simply by not knowing them.”

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Sports brand Adidas has created the world’s first football boot to have an upper knitted entirely from yarn (+ slideshow).

Adidas‘ limited-edition Samba Primeknit boot is said to offer the same levels of strength and stability as conventional boots, while using fewer materials and weighing less.

Using yarn means that the shoe doesn’t produce any waste material, making the Primeknit the company’s most sustainable football boot according to a press statement.

Football boots are traditionally made by stitching and laminating pieces together. However in this case, a single piece of yarn is knitted and attached to the sole of the shoe. By using just one textile layer, the upper material is reduced to a minimum – meaning the boot weighs just 165 grams.

“By producing the world’s first knitted football boot we have provided a brand new solution to the search for higher levels of comfort and flexibility,” said Markus Baumann, senior vice-president for global football at Adidas.

Developed over the course of two years, each piece of yarn is coated in a water-resistant polymer to ensure the boot doesn’t become waterlogged when wet.

Designers also created specific zones on the fabric to increase flexibility or stability depending on which part of the boot the yarn is located.

Although the technology has already been used in Adidas’ range of running shoes, plus Nike’s Flyknit footwear launched two years ago, the increased demands on the upper that playing football brings meant that further development of the material was required before it could be used for the sport.

“Primeknit is a technology that is right at the heart of Adidas innovation and we’re excited about introducing this development into football,” Baumann continued.

The colour – a mix of blue, orange, pink and lime green – is a reflection of the colour schemes currently used in Adidas’ Samba range, released ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup taking place in Brazil this summer.

The boot will be available from 17 March, with only 150 pairs due to go on sale.

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announced by Adidas appeared first on Dezeen.

After spending several years working in the international aid community around Sub-Saharan Africa, frustration set in for Canadian Tal Dehtiar. Money intended to stimulate struggling economies seemed to dissipate with little to show for it in terms of large-scale change in the lives…

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A diagonally stacked arrangement of cardboard shoe boxes covers the back wall of this footwear store in Santiago, Chile, by Move Architects (+ slideshow).

Move Architects designed 140 wooden supports with x-shaped profiles and inserted them into corresponding CNC-cut indentations on a large sheet of plywood mounted to the back wall of the shop.

“The X shaped perforations and supports are generated from the store’s name and logo, Bestias XX,” said the architects, explaining that the solution was also the result of a need for lots of accessible storage in a small space.

Shoe boxes can be stacked in a cascading arrangement between the supports and different patterns visible from outside the store can be created by leaving gaps or allowing some boxes to protrude.

“Given the project’s short construction time and it’s restricted budget it we decided to minimise the use of conventional manual labour and instead of what would traditionally be called ‘building’ a store, we decided to ‘manufacture’ the shop,” the architects explained.

Once the panels and supports had been created, the interior was assembled by the clients in 12 hours.

The store also features a plywood counter and metal stools for customers to try on the range of shoes.

Photography is by Cristobal Palma.

Here’s a project description from Move Architects:

Bestias XX

Bestias XX can be summarized in two constrains: quantitative and qualitative. On one hand, 12 sqm has to hold at least 380 shoeboxes, 2 employees and 3 potential customers. On the other hand this quantitative restriction must be the image of the shop.

As a result space restrictions, from the beginning of the design process the project was treated as combined need for storage space and a strong image. Therefore, we decided that the shoeboxes would define the shop image. To achieve this, 140 wooden X’s were built and inserted into six 18 mm plywood sheets over a perforated grill at 45 degree defined by the size of the box (33x13cm).

The plywood sheets are hung from the store’s perimeter walls. Since the store is located in a corner of an urban shopping centre in Santiago, the boxes mounted on the X’s create an exterior façade. The X- shaped perforations and supports are generated from the store’s logo: BESTIAS XX.

Given the project’s short construction time and it restricted budget it was decided to minimise the use of conventional manual labour and instead of what would traditionally be called “building” a store we decided to “manufacture” the shop. The store was “mass-produced” mostly using two types of plywood sheets (one used to obtain the X’s) that were cut using a CNC router, thus reducing the cutting time to one day. The rest was only a matter of assembling and mounting.

From the construction of the 6 panels that contains the perforations and the X’s, the structure was assembled by the clients themselves in 12 hours of uninterrupted work.

Project Name: BESTIAS XX
Architects: MoVe architects (Paula Velasco + Max Velasco + Alberto Moletto)
Construction: Max Velasco
Surface: 12 sqm
Budget: U$ 12.000
Location: Providencia, Santiago, Chile
Year: 2012

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shoe boxes by Move Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

London designer and researcher Shamees Aden is developing a concept for running shoes that would be 3D-printed from synthetic biological material and could repair themselves overnight.

Shamees Aden‘s Protocells trainer would be 3D-printed to the exact size of the user’s foot from a material that would fit like a second skin. It would react to pressure and movement created when running, puffing up to provide extra cushioning where required.

Aden developed the project in collaboration with Dr Martin Hanczyc, a professor at the University of Southern Denmark who specialises in protocell technology. Protocells are very basic molecules that are not themselves alive, but can be combined to create living organisms.

By mixing different types of these non-living molecules, scientists are attempting to produce artificial living systems that can be programmed with different behaviours, such as responsiveness to pressure, light and heat.

“The cells have the capability to inflate and deflate and to respond to pressure,” Aden told Dezeen at the Wearable Futures conference in London. “As you’re running on different grounds and textures it’s able to inflate or deflate depending on the pressure you put onto it and could help support you as a runner.”

After a run, the protocells in the material would lose their energy and the shoes would be placed in a jar filled with protocell liquid, which would keep the living organisms healthy. The liquid could also be dyed any colour, causing the shoes to take on that colour as the cells rejuvenate.

“You would take the trainers home and you would have to care for it as if it was a plant, making sure it has the natural resources needed to rejuvenate the cells,” said the designer.

Aden added that her footwear project was intended to help a broader range of people comprehend the potential of protocell technology, and claimed the speculative results could become reality by 2050.

The project is being presented at Wearable Futures, an event focusing on innovations in wearable technologies taking place in London from 10-11 December.

Photography is by the designer unless otherwise stated.

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biological cells by Shamees Aden appeared first on Dezeen.