Après Famous Eyeglasses, c’est aux chaussures que s’attaque le directeur artistique et multimédia italien Federico Mauro. D’Audrey Hepburn à Steve Jobs, en passant par Jeffrey Lebowski, l’artiste décrit les personnes au travers de ces objets qu’ils portent. Une série amusante à découvrir en images.
American sports brand Nike has released a stripped-down running shoe that is designed to allow athletes to feel and respond to the ground beneath them as they would in bare feet.
The Nike Free Hyperfeel is the latest shoe to feature Nike’s Flyknit technology, where the upper is knitted in one piece and fits the foot like a sock, but has a lower profile with less cushioning than previous shoes in the Flyknit range.
The rubber outsole on the bottom of the shoe is just 0.7 millimetres thick, substantial enough to provide protection from sharp objects underfoot without reducing flexibility or responsiveness.
The raised squares on the bottom of the outsole provide grip, but are also designed to act like pistons, increasing the feedback the runner gets from variations in the surface they are running on.
“We’re trying to make a shoe that is just an extension of your foot”, Tony Bignell, vice president of Nike Footwear Innovation, told Dezeen at the worldwide launch of the product in Portland, Oregon. “It’s designed to amplify what the foot is already doing.”
The combination of the knitted upper and thin sole also make the shoe very light. A size 10 weighs just 180g.
“When you talk to athletes and say: “What do you want the shoe to feel like when it’s on your foot?” Most athletes will look at you and say: “actually, I don’t want it to feel like anything,” said Bignell.
Cushioning is provided by an insole made from Lunarlon, the sports brand’s proprietary shock-absorbing foam, which slips inside the shoe.
“The Nike Free Hyperfeel is really designed for runners that are looking for a barefoot sensation but with a comfortable ride,” Bignell explained. “We’re always trying to strike a balance between protection, which is important, and also sensation.”
Here are some more details from Nike:
The Nike Free Hyperfeel is created to intuitively move with the foot. It is inspired by Nike’s “Nature Amplified” design ethos — an approach focused on the body in motion and fueled by scientific data and athlete insights.
Research insights informed the precise placement of cushioning and outsole traction for a low-profile shoe that provides padding and protection only where necessary. A drop-in Lunarlon insole with flex grooves allows the foot to have direct contact with the Lunarlon cushioning. The waffle outsole is ultra-thin, allowing the foot to get closer to the ground.
Scientists in the Nike Sport Research Lab carefully studied which areas of the foot come into contact with the ground and absorb pressure, and which areas require traction. They used pressure-mapping technology and high-speed film to analyze the foot in motion.
The result is Nike Free Hyperfeel, a shoe that mimics the intricate workings of the human foot: Lunarlon foam replicates cushioned pads under the foot. The outsole protects like hardened skin on the sole. Dynamic Flywire flexes and contracts, inspired by ligaments.
The Nike Free Hyperfeel ($175) will be at retail in the US, UK and Japan beginning 5 September.
The post Nike Free Hyperfeel running
shoe by Nike appeared first on Dezeen.
Jasmine Takanikos lives a life guided by color. The NYC-based color and branding consultant is known among the creative community for her flawless ability to pair pigments, both in her personal style and for companies like…
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Sporting a nostalgic, aqua sock-like vibe, Nike’s recently released summer ’13 Solarsoft Moccasins have all the makings for a laid-back, Weekend At Bernie’s sort of adventure. But with an ultra-comfy midsole packing their trademark Lunarlon cushioning—a…
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Sportswear brand Reebok has launched a range of running shoes that shrink to fit the wearer’s foot when heated with a hairdryer.
Reebok‘s RealFlex U-FORM+ shoe is heated with a hairdryer for two minutes until the logo on the back turns from black to red. The hot shoe is then laced tightly around the foot and left to cool for two minutes while the wearer sits still.
A synthetic mesh layer inside the upper shrinks as it cools to mould exactly to the contours of the skin, starting in the middle of the foot and wrapping around the heel.
The material replaces normal lining in the shoe so it doesn’t add any extra weight and perforations in the mesh mean it’s breathable. Reebok says the shoes can be reheated and reformed many times over without losing effectiveness.
“For top athletes we make custom-formed shoes,” says Bill McInnis, head of Reebok Advanced Concepts. “With U-FORM+ we’re going to do that for everyone.”
Other innovative sports shoes on Dezeen include trainers with criss-crossing bands inspired by Chinese finger traps, football boots with 3D-printed studs and shoes with cables round them that tighten on impact.
See all our stories about shoes »
See all our stories about sportswear »
The post RealFlex U-FORM+ shoes
by Reebok appeared first on Dezeen.
The platform heels of these shoes by graduate fashion designer Laura Papp are moulded from porcelain (+ slideshow).
“Textiles and laces were dipped into porcelain and then burnt, so the shape remains but the materials are destroyed,” Papp told Dezeen.
Three different gauzes were used to create patterns influenced by stalactites and the stonework of the Sagrada Familia by Gaudí, whose birthday was celebrated with a Google doodle not long ago.
The Porcelain Shoes are each as light as one kilogram due to the half-centimetre-thick heel walls and a pair can withstand weights over 160 kilograms.
Contrasting with the rough heels, smooth white leather is used for the vamps. Each has a different style of opening and slashes up the ankle at various offsets.
The platforms are angled inward from the heel and toe to create smaller soles, which are formed from rubber.
Papp recently graduated from Budapest’s Moholy–Nagy University of Art and Design with a bachelor degree from the Faculty of Accessory Design.
We’ve previously published shoes based on furniture and engineering, and filmed a movie with the designer of a pair of high heels you wear back to front. See more shoe design »
The text below was sent to us by the designer:
This experimental project was for my bachelor degree. My inspirations were the stone surfaces of dripstones and Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia. My goal was that the rustic features would show up in the heels. I imagined it in white, because it shows the plastics best. The right material was porcelain as it is able to imitate any fine surface, and one of the strongest materials.
The shoes could hold more than 160 kilograms but the platform is not heavy, only one kilogram, because the heel wall is only half a centimetre thick. Finally, three pairs of shoes are made from different gauzes. The vamp is made of leather, which contrasts with the platform. The homogeny and the rustic reinforce each other. The sole of the shoes are made of rubber.
The post Porcelain Shoes
by Laura Papp appeared first on Dezeen.
Shoes are displayed in metal mesh columns at this footwear store in Osaka, Japan (+ slideshow).
Interior designer Ryutaro Matsuura used the see-through wire panels and a neutral palette to create an environment that puts all the emphasis on the shoes.
“When the differences of surrounding decorative environment are suppressed, the items themselves begin to enhance their presence,” he explains.
Shoes are displayed on translucent shelves made from a honeycomb resin sandwich, attached to floor-to-ceiling columns of different circumferences.
Matsuura describes the interior as a “shoe forest”, with “the merchandise hovering like fruits on trees”.
The design gives equal prominence to each product and allows customers to navigate the displays without overbearing design elements influencing their purchasing decision.
Nendo recently designed a store in New York for Spanish brand Camper with white resin shoes covering the walls and we spoke to Miguel Fluxá, head of Camper, who told us why they use different designers for each of their stores.
Photography is by Nacasa & Partners Inc.
Here is some more information from the designer:
Stores tend to be composed of wall shelves and display tables. In those cases, the priority levels for the items at the store and the flows of customers would be set by the sellers. And hence the selection behaviours of the customers tend to be controlled.
So that made us create a pleasant space where customers can find the goods they have hoped for without bias. That was the birth of the shoe store studded with the same C-shaped wire mesh fixtures.
The fixtures have translucent loose shelves for shoes that are made of honeycomb sandwich resin panels. The merchandise hovering like fruits on trees shows its presence in the store that can be described as a “shoe forest”. Customers can enjoy meeting the merchandise and feel a sense of exaltation.
When the differences of surrounding decorative environment are suppressed, the items themselves begin to enhance their presence. Therefore we think that spontaneous perceptions would be educed from
customers. And then, imagination and curiosity of the customers would be getting large.
Those feelings will provide a motivation for customers to approach each item, and they will have an opportunity to find the item that really suits. That is what we are expecting.
The post Lucca llena shoe store
by Ryutaro Matsuura appeared first on Dezeen.
Interview: we caught up with Miguel Fluxá, head of shoe brand Camper, at the opening of the brand’s Nendo-designed boutique on Fifth Avenue in New York last month (below). In this short interview, he explains why the company uses different designers for each of its global stores for cultural, rather than business, reasons (+ slideshow).
Designers as diverse as Jaime Hayón and Shigeru Ban have designed stores for Camper. “The world today is becoming a little bit boring, everything is becoming the same,” says Fluxá. “So we thought it was interesting for the brand, and for the cities, to do different designs from one place to the other.”
As a family-owned company, Camper is able to experiment with different design approaches without worrying too much about the commercial impact, he says: “Some concepts work better than others but we don’t measure it really.”
See all our stories about Camper. Below is a transcript of the interview:
Marcus Fairs: Tell us about yourself.
Miguel Fluxá: My name is Miguel Fluxá. I work at Camper and I’m a member of the fourth generation of the company. My great grandfather founded the business 136 years ago and I’m from Mallorca, where Camper is from and where my family comes from. This week we’re in New York, at the store opening on Fifth Avenue that we just did with Nendo.
Marcus Fairs: How did Camper start?
Miguel Fluxá: The story started in 1877 when my great grandfather founded the first shoe factory in Spain, 136 years ago. He had the idea to make good-quality shoes. He was a farmer and he probably didn’t speak any English and he probably didn’t have any money, but he went abroad, to France and England, and he came back after a couple of years with the machinery to set up a shoe factory.
Then after many years, in 1975 my father joined the family business and created Camper as a brand and he incorporated this heritage of knowing how to make quality shoes with design and comfort. He tried to make well-designed shoes that you can wear every day. This is the basis of the product today.
To that we added some cultural values. We come from Mallorca, from the Mediterranean, there’s a slow way of life there. Camper means farmer in Mallorquin, which is the language we speak in Mallorca, and when you mix all these ingredients together, you get Camper. I think the success has probably been trying to make something different, something original with quality.
Marcus Fairs: Camper uses different designers to create different store interiors around the world. Why did you start doing this?
Miguel Fluxá: When we started to open stores outside Spain we thought it was interesting not to repeat them. The world today is becoming a little bit boring, everything is becoming the same. So we thought it was interesting for the brand, and for the cities, to do different designs from one place to the other. We started to do this many years ago and it’s something that has given us a lot of identity and has worked quite well over the years.
We’ve worked with many people, from Martí Guixé, a Spanish designer, who has a sense of humour and irony, to Mariscal, who’s also Spanish, to the Bouroullec Brothers, the Campana Brothers, Alfredo Haberli, some Japanese designers – Nendo and Tokujin Yoshioka, Shigeru Ban who’s an architect, because we also work with architects, Jasper Morrison, Konstantin Grcic, a lot of people actually.
Marcus Fairs: Do you do this for cultural or commercial reasons?
Miguel Fluxá: It’s more a cultural thing. We’re lucky to be a privately-owned company, a family-owned company, so we look at the long term and we try to do things that we like to do. Of course we think it’s of benefit to the brand. It’s given a lot of identity to the brand, and customers recognise it.
Marcus Fairs: Do you measure the commercial impact of the interiors?
Miguel Fluxá: Some concepts work better than others but we don’t measure it really.
Marcus Fairs: Footwear, especially sports footwear, is getting really technological with high-tech materials and embedded technology. Is this a path Camper may follow?
Miguel Fluxá: We are interested. For sure we are interested. The DNA of the brand is more in natural leathers, European leathers, and this is our heritage. We are shoemakers, we’re not a sports brand. But it’s true there are more and more techniques, more and more materials. For example in the outsoles there is a lot of development in the lightness of the materials, and also in the uppers.
Marcus Fairs: What’s your opinion of New York?
Miguel Fluxá: Personally I love New York. I spent six months here when I was young. For me it’s probably the capital of the world. A lot of things happen here. A lot of good culture, architecture, museums, food, everything. It’s good to come here from time to time especially if you come from an island, which is completely the opposite.
Marcus Fairs: Do Americans appreciate design in the same way Europeans do?
Miguel Fluxá: In America they do have a good tradition of architecture and design. It’s true that it was probably more in the forties, fifties and sixties than today. But I think there are people who appreciate design, European design. Our design is more European, more refined and more casual, but there are a lot of people here who appreciate it.
The post “The world today is becoming
a little bit boring” appeared first on Dezeen.
By pairing data acquisition, user behavior, and rapid prototyping, the designers at Pensar wish to create footwear conforming to our individual anatomy and using biomechanics as the foundation. The DNA concept leverages rapid manufacturing to create a shoe built to our foot contours. Pressure sensors and accelerometers fitted trainers are taken for a run and then based upon the data collected, the 3D printed shoe is created!
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Designers: Alex Diener & Pensar Development
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(3D Shoes! Footloose! was originally posted on Yanko Design)
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by Gavin Lucas Hole & Corner is a brand new bi-annual print magazine devoted to “celebrating craft, beauty, passion and skill.” Hot off the press, issue one takes a look at how Chris King carefully…
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