Royal College of Art student Jui Chi Chang has created a line of shoes inspired by furniture and engineering. The shoes are made from maple and metal and are inspired specifically by chairs. The designer used CAD (computer-aided design) software to render the shoes before building them. The result are shoes that can slot together like simple pieces of furniture.
The collection is more a triumph of simplicity and engineering than it is an ode to lounge chairs and love seats. That being said, you don't have to be an engineer student to dig what Chang has done. The unique shape of these shoes, combined with the material they're made with, are enough to draw attention. The fact that they can be instantly assembled and disassembled is another factor contributing to their awesomeness.
Key Themes Behind This Trend
- Chairs-inspired Footwear
- Designing footwear that takes inspiration from furniture, specifically chairs, offers a disruptive innovation opportunity in the shoe industry.
- Cad-aided Shoe Design
- Using computer-aided design (CAD) software to render and build shoes presents a disruptive innovation opportunity in the manufacturing process of footwear.
- Modular Shoe Assembly
- Creating shoes that can be instantly assembled and disassembled, like simple pieces of furniture, opens up disruptive innovation opportunities for the footwear industry.
Where This Applies
- Footwear
- The footwear industry can explore disruptive innovation by incorporating design elements from furniture and integrating modular assembly techniques.
- Furniture
- The furniture industry has the potential to collaborate with the footwear industry and explore cross-industry innovation based on the shared inspiration of design elements.
- CAD Software
- The CAD software industry can seize the disruptive innovation opportunity by developing specialized tools for footwear designers and manufacturers.
