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Wiivv Custom Fit Sandal Custom Fit Footwear From You Smartphone by Christopher Bellamy |
Home > Winners > Design #73038 >Interview |
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FS: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
CB: Using the latest technological advancements to create the most comfortable sandal in the world, that also looks great!
FS: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
CB: The customer has been our main focus. Their feet, their preferences, their choice. We analysed over 12.7 million data points to date in our biometric foot database to understand feet better than anyone else. We then combined this information with our scanning and customisation technologies, 3D printing and manufacturing to make the design possible.
FS: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
CB: We are a technology company at heart, and so intend to licence our technologies to other footwear brands, while also continuing to expand our own brand portfolio of products.
FS: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
CB: The design took about 3 years from idea to scale production.
FS: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
CB: Many of our custom insole customers asked if there was anyway they could put their insoles in sandals. We thought we can answer that call!
FS: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?
CB: We are selling and manufacturing our own design. We are licensing our technologies to other brands.
FS: What made you design this particular type of work?
CB: We believe that the footwear market is incredibly out dated and has huge opportunities to improve. We want to drive that change. People feet deserve better!
FS: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?
CB: We analysed all other sandals on the market closely. The iconic Birkenstock, to the ever popular Haviannas. We learnt from them all.
FS: Who is the target customer for his design?
CB: We are targeting three groups - athletes seeking recovery, people in pain who cannot wear normal sandals due to the lack of support, and people seeking wellness.
FS: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
CB: There is no other product on the market that is as biomechanically advanced or comfortable. We also happen to look great as well.
FS: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
CB: Its a rather dull name, but explains the product!
FS: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?
CB: EVERYTHING - fusion360, Rhino, Blender, Modo, Illustrator, 3D printing, clay modelling, foam machining, paper prototyping - whatever way we could create the lowest resolution prototypes as early as possible.
FS: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
CB: The 3D printed arch support and the custom strap placement. It is also very unique in having a fully closed loop recyclable footbed.
FS: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?
CB: We have all of these skills in house!
FS: What is the role of technology in this particular design?
CB: The customisation at scale would not be possible without technology. Managing the manufacturing and automation to create custom products is not viable for the price point we have achieved without our technology being able to automate the customisation process.
FS: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design?
CB: We have analysed over 12.7 million data points in creating this design. Using our biometric database, alongside customer preferences, surveys, feedback, as well as training our Wiivv Fit Algorithm - data is central to this projects success.
FS: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
CB: We had a first sandal design ready to go to production, with tooling cut. We completed biomechanics tests in our lab, and found that our biomechanics results weren't the best in class. We could have gone to market. Instead we delayed the project a year, tore up the design, and started from scratch all over again, carrying over all the learnings we have made - the end product is so much better!
FS: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?
CB: Our app has received awards, but we have never submitted our physical product for awards - we thought it was time to change that!
FS: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?
CB: Resilience, consistency, persistance, and a strong sense of values were all learnt during this project.
FS: Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to interview you.
A' Design Award and Competitions grants rights to press members and bloggers to use parts of this interview. This interview is provided as it is; DesignPRWire and A' Design Award and Competitions cannot be held responsible for the answers given by participating designers.
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