Description The penultimate goal of my senior project, “For The Act of Movement” was a simple one but often overlooked in the industry of running products, especially footwear. This collection’s goal was to view the runner’s day/training cycle in one whole view, rather than a bunch of separated products, from slow training runs, to speed work + racing and finally recovery. Each piece of footwear in this collection has the goal of both serving the specific need of the athletes training cycle but also seamlessly transitioning into the next. Every product as well within the collection also was designed with the earth in mind. Not just with the materials and process using 3d printing and its benefits, but also in their functionality. Every product aims to condense what normally would be 2-4 products from a brand in a certain category (example racings, tempo, longer mileage, etc) into 1, with an example being the track shoe having a interchangeable spike plate that can both be replaced when worn out or specified based on terrain. These concepts are carried across all 4 products of the collection to hopefully one day make a more unified running product lineup for runners everywhere.
Innovation The products within this collection are all designed and prototyped using both traditional methods of taped lasts and pattern working but also with the added assistance of 3d printing. The goal was to make every shoe within this collection as close to “run-able” as humanly possible and with the assistance of 3d printing, specifically in the midsole, that was accomplished. Using Multi-density techniques within the midsole based on foot pressure mapping, I was able to 3d print a midsole that had more complex density than anything else found within the market today using standard injection molding. In Addition, within the upper, i built everything out of breathable, but sturdy nylons that were able to be light, hold their structure, and feel fast and comfortable on foot.
Product Detail The materials found within this project consists of expanding TPU filament, gridded and non gridded Nylon fabrics, hot-melt TPU, microsuede, natural rubbers.
Specification Within the collection, the sandals were developed off of a size 44 last and the runners were developed on a mens size 10 US last. Since these are only prototyped, they are only currently found in these two sizes. I used these two sizes based on the shoe size of both myself and my running coach, Pat Reagan in order to conduct the best feedback possible from wear testing.
