After the last semester I discovered that there is a big room for improvement when it comes sustainability in the footwear industry. I looked into the industry itself, learning about materials and looking into sustainability campaigns, and learned about consumer habits, reading research papers about it and creating a survey where I gathered first hand information about it. I then came to the conclusion that I want to focus on consumer habits since it might be easier and more realistic to create a change.
The focus this semesters will be to look into different ways of changing consumer habits. I will go through an ideation phase where I generate ideas without too many restrictions, so that my creative thinking can evolve without boundaries.
One of my initial ideas is to focus on shoe repair services and how they can become more appealing and visible for all age groups. By doing this, I still need to learn more about the profession and I want to visit a shoe repair service in Graz and talk to them about the topic. My goal would be that peoples first thoughts when they have a worn out pair of shoes is Can this be fixed? rather than I need to buy a new pair of shoes.
THE FIRST PROTOTYPES
We were thrown into the ideation phase and got the task to create 1-3 prototypes over a few days. We had a speed dating session after this, where we presented our prototypes and got some feedback. It was very helpful to get other perspectives on the prototypes and to discuss the opportunities to evolve the ideas.
The Shoe Shredder Company
Explanation: This is a business idea where The Shoe Shredder Company takes care of old, worn out shoes and give them a new life in a different form. The way this work is that there are multiple recycling boxes from the company around the city and people can deliver their worn out shoes in these boxes. The shoes will be collected and brought to the company’s factory. There the shoes will firstly be cleaned and then shredded and the fibres from the shoes will eventually be used as isolation in walls. This way, the shoes will get a new life as something new and the shoe waste will be reduced.
Things to consider:
- Can shoe fibers be used as isolation and how well does it isolate? There are no actual research that shoe fibres will work well as isolation. There might be difficulties regarding all the different materials in shoes so that the level of isolation will vary.
- How can the company make sure that only worn out shoes will be shredded? This company should not be a quick fix for people that just want to get rid of their perfectly fine shoes. There has to be a way to make sure that only worn out shoes will be shredded, maybe the shoes can be scanned in the recycling boxes?
- Why should people use this as isolation? This isolation have to stand out from other kinds of isolation. It is definitely a sustainable choice, but it have to be appealing as well.
Feedback:
- It would be nice if the shredding happens in the recycling boxes, so that people can watch their own shoes turn into fibres.
- Some kind of tracking would be cool, so that you can follow your shoes and get to know in which buildings your old shoes end up.
Awareness campaign
Explanation: This is a shoe shelf is working as an awareness campaign. The shelf can either be placed in different places were it is natural to have shoe shelfs, e.g. in swimming halls, in gyms, in climbing halls etc., or it can be placed in places where you don’t expect to see shoe shelfs and where people have time to observe it, e.g. at bus stops or in train stations. There are multiple pairs of shoes that are permanently placed in the shelfs and that are worn out in different ways. There are also different messages on the shelf, like “new sole – as good as new” that are suppose to inspire people to repair their own shoes.
Feedback:
- It would be nice if there were some sensors on the shelf that could scan peoples shoes and give them specific recommendations on improvements shoes that could be done.
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