#210520: Cultsport V-Man Air Running Shoe
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March 2021 -November 2021
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Cult.Fit/CultSport is an India local fitness startup company
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Product and design consulting
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To design a collection of 6 running silhouettes and 2 new toolings for local India market.
I design this running silhouette with simplicity in mind. I want to create a running shoe with key performance required pieces in place, such as breathability is my top priority which I want to be so obvious that people can feel the air going in and out of the shoe before wearing the shoe.
The upper main material is beautiful tech mesh with open ventilation. This material is both durable and breathable. Then I add minimal required re-enforcement elements for eye-stay; mud guard and toe cap. For the heel area I intend to have a well designed external re-enforcement piece placed. Also the heel is intentionally blocked out from the rest of the upper design using a tight woven fabric which is to emphasis on stability.
There are several versions of this design concept. The upper overlay part originally has few different designs put in place. Eventually I put design focus on the mud guard area of the forefoot. And the CAD drawings are focused on bring out the overlay designs. Overall this design is clean enough with few well placed design focuses.
The overall silhouette in shouting breathability by utilizing one single layer of visible open air mesh. Yet the heel has a functional counter and well designed external heel stabilizer. For the eye stay and forefoot support an ergonomic designed overlays are put in play.
I particularly fond of the additional details I added to the heel stabilizer. Also the fine polka dots are added to the overlay trimmings, which are also a very nice touch if I may say so.
Of course the eye-stay piece has to have some degree of design interest as well. Since this is a laser or die-cut piece that is heat pressed, without the limitation of stitching I can really have fun with the overall shape of eye-stay.
There is one major design change that is due to client’s limited budget when I was executing the sample. The original idea for the body material is one piece jacquard woven piece. However, the client just can’t afford the MOQ of making a new jacquard upper. Instead I picked an extreme ventilated mesh material.
*When this design moving forward, I will need to add another thin layer of mesh on top of this open ventilated mesh so that the feet are not too exposed.
