Shoenistas 2010 Footwear Awards

First award is the Lady Gaga award for freaky footwear....and it goes to - Lady Gaga for her meat shoes.

Yes I know they are disgusting but they're not a million miles away from what untanned hides are like. Vegans run away now, run like the wind!

Kirsty MacColl - In These Shoes?

Ten years ago today since singer songwriter Kirsty MacColl was killed, as a tribute I wanted to post this tune of hers

Shoe Designer Zuzana Serbak

I just discovered another amazing conceptual shoe designer, who works with materials such as Silicone and Carbon Fibre. Amazing shoes!

Zuzana studied in Prague and focused on making shoes with materials that one would not normally associate with dress shoes. She is currently in the luxury sector, but she is also available for freelance and she hopes to set up her own brand one day. If you are reading this, Zuzana, please, please do - your shoes deserve a wider audience!

You can read more about Zuzana (and also contact her) via her blog. http://zuzanaserbak.blogspot.com/

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!

A shoe design that totally sucks!

Introducing the Foki shoe, first ever vacuum cleaning shoes, put them on and vacuum your house! They totally (and literally) suck!

I'd imaging anyone looking at you through the window whist you were wearing/using these would be in their rights to wonder what on earth you were up to in there, because I reckon they must make for some bizarre and creative movements around the back of the couch & by the coffe table in order to ensure you get every last bit of dust up.

All we need now is for the inventor to design a version for dogs to wear, then my dog can clear all his dog hair up after himself, now that would be progress!

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/foki-vacuum-footware-lets-you-shoe-ver-your-house-50001741/

and the spelling pedant in me would like to point out to Crave.net that it is footwear not footware - we are talking shoes here, not pots n' pans!

Selfridges Shoe Galleries - where are our new designers?

Ok, I admit it, I wasn't at all quick of the mark visting the new Shoe galleries at Selfridges, infact I was positively slow! In these days of the internet, the need for me to get out and look at shoes in shops isn't quite as pressing.

By the time a new trend hits the shops in London, it is six months since we shoe designers saw it at a trade show, so it's old news .

But when I went to the trade show Bread and Butter in Berlin in July, I spent an afternoon looking around the shops. What I saw was much more exciting, many more labels and designers. I actually got the 'I Wants', for this shoe or that shoe. Then I came back to London feeling a bit flat, because ihere I see the same old versions of designs I've seen at Micam, everyone is doing the same thing - nothing so new or exciting, because it's what the buyers want to buy.

So my impression of Shoe Galleries. Lovely shop fit, granted. The big names very much in evidence, presented in a way that I'm more used to seeing in the United States . More Kurt Geiger than you can shake a stick at and a decent selection of Azzedine Alaia (a personal favourite of mine).

But apart from the made it and established British Shoe designers (such as Rupert Sanderson and Nicholas Kirkwood), I couldn't see much evidence of many others, which is a shame. I left feeling a bit disappointed, because I was expecting to see something new and exciting, a new brand or designer and I didn't. Of course, there are other shoe stores and departments, Harvey Nichols is the best place to visit in London if you want newly discovered designers.

But I have friends who have started their own brands and they all say how difficult it is to get buyers in their own country to notice them and designers who mail me and tell me the same, which I think is a shame.

So come on British shoe buyers, support our new talent - we have some of the best footwear design eduction and talent in the world, time to give them some shelf space!

I'm posting some photos of new designers work just to give you food for thought.

and some links if you want to know more about them and especially to buy their designs!

Sophie Gittins http://www.sophiegittins.com/

Selam Yohans http://showtime.arts.ac.uk/SelamYohans

Kat Maconie http://www.katmaconie.com

Mr Zippys Trainers

Yet another shoe design flash game, this time you have to design trainers for Mr Zippy. I especially like the technical stuff, this is the first flash game where they want you to add the features and benefits to your design and explain why!

Find it here: http://www.sycd.co.uk/primary/mr_zippy/index.htm