Article#220520 Screen Printing in Sneaker Manufacture
In this blog piece I am displaying something mesmerizing I found during one of my factory visit. It is something like a piece of abstract art to me in a way. It has to do with how graphics, logo branding, etc. being applied onto a shoe. It is part of screen printing process.
Screen printing as graphic application tool itself is nothing new in product design space, especially in clothing space. In footwear industry graphic can be applied onto a shoe the same way as graphics applied on a T-shirt using a mesh screen.
The mesmerizing thing I was talking about is certainly not the mesh screens themselves. However, since shoes have way more sizes and pieces comparing to T-shirts, applying graphics onto a piece of shoe upper has sizing issue as well. The solution of fixing this sizing issue is so ingenious.
A stack of outlines of difference sizes of the same pattern were drawn onto a production line table top in various of colors to differentiate each shoe style. For example, pattern outline of shoe style A is in black; pattern outline of shoe style B is in red; etc. Also since each size has a number stamped along with each outline there is no mixing up during production.
When I saw these simple outlines I was immediately captivated by how beautiful they were. At first glance they are just messy lines. In fact there is logic behind these “messy” lines. These lines are like the technical version of a Jackson Pollock painting.
Factory development trip is not just a job of footwear design to me, it is an opportunity discovering new things that opens my eyes, which eventually leading to me advancing my design skills and knowledges.
