I'm new to footwear Part Two - Researching. How can I help you, the designer to research for a new shoe project?

If you are new to footwear product development and you haven't employed any design help before, it can be tricky to know what information a designer might need.

So I thought I'd share the research stage, what it involves and how to help your designer.

If you can present me with some of your own research, it gives me a basis for my own research. Perhaps start a secret pinterest folder? What to put in there? If the product category exists, when you begin, you could put in photos of rival companies product. This helps me in two ways. I can see not only the aesthetics of the product, I can also look at the price and see where a product is made. This can help us formulate our own brief and also help us when we speak to manufacturers. We can critique it thoroughly. Below, a screenshot from my own pinterest account which can be found here: https://uk.pinterest.com/shoedesigner/

The board below is a development ideas board developed with help from a client.  When you collect ideas for your pinterest board, look at the materials you want to use, logos you like, brands that you identify with,  colours you love and don't forget to talk about the NOPES, what you don't want to see, that's important too. We can then meet either in person or online and discuss our shared research. 

This discussion about the direction we wish to take will form the basis for the ideation sketches stage of the project. 

And don't forget to include any inspiration at all you think might help me to help you. Especially for creative design, if I'm creating a brand for you, then I want to inject your personality and your taste into it. For instance, a client told me how much they loved the architect Frank Gehry. I researched both his architecture then his jewellery.  From this I developed the mood board for the collection and the resulting research inspired me to create the theme for the collection. Here is the board.

And don't be ashamed to send me your own design scribbles. it's my job to work your ideas into something that can be made, this is my skill, please don't discount your own ideas because you aren't a fantastic artist. I still want to see your ideas.  I have worked with professional designers who aren't fantastic artists either, but they still managed to create shoes that sold millions of pairs. I am interested in your ideas and how we can make them into shoes that people want to buy. That is all! 

It's almost New Years resolution time...

and I'm getting many, many enquiries from those of you that have a shoe design based resolution.

Perhaps you fancy yourself as the next Tinker Hatfield (Air Jordan designer, pictured), perhaps you fancy yourself as the next Louboutin, perhaps you have lots of designs and ideas and you want to see them turned into real shoes?

I thought I'd reiterate some of the questions I get and answer them here.

I have lots of amazing shoe designs on paper and I want to sell them.

Unfortunately shoe companies don't buy in designs like this. They employ professional designers (either employees or freelancers like me) to do it. We are given a design brief, which we have to follow closely. We are trained to design shoes that can be easily made on a production line, we can design to a given price, we know how to provide the instructions to a factory to make the shoe. If you want to be able to sell your designs, then you need to study and gain a qualification, to learn the technical side of shoe production, to learn how to follow a design brief, then with hard work and luck, you can gain employment in the shoe trade and you will be able to see your designs on peoples feet.

I want to start my own shoe brand and I need samples

The first thing you are going to need is lots of money - it is hard to estimate exactly how much money you would need to launch a brand, but a few tens of thousands of dollars would not be far off the mark. Why so much money?

Well, one pair of luxury women's shoe samples from a sample maker in Italy could set you back about 500 euros. Then there's the flights to Italy and the hotel for two weeks (you cannot develop a new brand without visiting the factory, someone will have to go there.) In the UK, the lowest price for samples would be about £200 per pair, but (if you can find shoe makers that is), they are usually much more than that!

For sneakers it is more difficult as traditional shoe makers and sample rooms cannot make this type of footwear - you would have to convince a factory to work with you. If you want to design your own soles, then the sample mold will set you back about $1000 alone. Then you have to factor in travel to the factory and hotels and shipping costs for those samples. Convincing a factory is tricky, they will want to know what your business plan is, how many pairs order can they expect from those samples and when? If you can't answer those questions, they may think you are too much of a risk to them. Investing in a new brand is not only costly for you, it is costly for the factory. They will not see any return on their investment in you for several seasons and making samples for you will tie up their sample room, when they could be making samples for an established brand, which might attract guaranteed or better orders This is why they have to be cautious in deciding who to work with and this is why many of them do not take the risk of working with new brands.

If you want to be taken seriously, then it's a good idea to do a footwear course, it's an even better idea to write as business plan, it's an excellent idea to visit a trade show and do some networking.

I'm updating my website to include and education and jobs section - I'll be quizzing entrepreneurs and asking them advice and sharing it with you.

Good luck with your New Years Resolutions!