#180820 BASF Concept Shoe
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August 2018 -December 2018
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BASF/DesignFabrik
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Contract design work
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To design a footwear concept that utilizing BASF DesignFabrik ematerials.
In 2019 I did a concept footwear project with BASF company, the biggest chemical company in the world. Yes, BASF is also the company working with Adidas brought the well-known polyurethane sneaker midsole, Boost to footwear market. The brand I worked with is called DesignFabrik. The idea of this project is to design a concept footwear and manufactured using all materials made by the company. DesignFabrik is a product showroom that showcase the potential of materials made by the company.
After the initial team meet with BASF team, DesignFabrik team, manufacture team, this footwear has only one product requirement: the style of this silhouette must be a dress shoe last. The rest is pretty much up to my imagination.
Concept One
This concept actually is the backup concept design which eventually went into development because one feature of the original concept was not be able to achieve as planned.
This bottom tooling was designed in an abstract kind of way. The outsole has pieces of rubber pods to have a smooth ride. And a piece of carbon plate is placed between upper and bottom to create stability.
The bottom tooling of this first concept is solely based on creating an aesthetically unique midsole with minimal outsole coverage. The upper has two parts. The forefoot part is the clean derby shoe and the back is a knitting piece that gives the entire shoe a playful aesthetics.
Here is the development picture of this concept. Since the heel upper part is what drives the attention of this design. I create two different knitting patterns.
Concept Two
This concept was the original proposed concept design. In a nutshell the difference between this concept and the the other one is instead of a carbon plate. In this concept I designed a 3D printed stabilizer instead of a carbon plate.
Here is the breakdown sketches of the construction and diagram of the 3D printed stabilizer. In this concept the outsole is much simpler.
However, since the development team couldn’t secure the satisfying delivery of 3D print. Eventually this concept had to be replaced with a easier to execute concept.
The project was my very first conceptual driven footwear. I couldn’t help thinking if footwear design is mainly driven by conceptual instead of commercialization. There will be so many fun, playful yet unwearable shoes.
