We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Ye Shen about their original and creative Interactive Footwear design work. Ye Shen is an award-winning fashion designer, that makes our world a better place with their original interactive footwear works.
Ye Shen ("YS") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Wacky Pack Interactive Footwear. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
YS : The investigated question is inspired by the constantly hyped sneakerhead community, where so many conversations happen around all kinds of footwear, yet for many people, their only interaction with the products is to take them on and off. As an industrial designer, I frequently reflect upon the relation between products and users, also I'm poised to provide the most unexpected and unique user interactions with the products I design.
YS : The Wacky Pack challenges the mundane concept of footwear closures, the goal is to push the boundary of wacky methods that a shoe can be "tied".
YS : This is just the volume one of my endeavor of footwear closure exploration. Like a chair's function is to suspend a person's butt 30 inches off the ground, there are unlimited possibilities of how a shoe can be "tied". Of course, selected styles within this footwear collection will be produced in a very limited way.
YS : Some designs took longer to ideate, but some are more spontaneous. After concept generation, the time spent around testing materials, creative prototypes and executing the final versions took roughly 2 months.
YS : I created this series during a time when I wanted to get into the footwear industry. I had just learned traditional shoe making techniques and wanted to combine these traditional methods with innovative problem-solving.
YS : I intend to produce the work myself. However, I am open to the possibilities of partnering with companies to produce these designs, such as Hender Scheme or Guidi.
YS : To explore some of the untouched territory of footwear design, as well as expressing my own design philosophy.
YS : The Japanese brand Hender Scheme influenced greatly on this collection. As a brand that combines traditional footwear crafts with modern aesthetics and product ethos, they might not be the most technologically innovative brand in footwear, but is definitely deeply rooted and involved in the conversation around cultures between footwear, fashion and product.
YS : People who purchase a product not only because of it's functionality, physicality or aesthetic, but also because of the underlying statement that it translates.
YS : The collection borrows some classic and even indigenous footwear silhouette, but building novelty elements over them, so the creative conversation has a familiar tangible origin to trace back to.
YS : In the footwear industry, a collection of shoes launched at the same time under the same theme is usually called a "pack". I was fascinated with the phrase, "that's wack!" and at some point expect people to make that exact comment on my design, so Wacky Pack.
YS : All means of traditional shoe-making practice. From Pattern making, to sewing panels, to lasting the shoes and attaching bottom units.
YS : The whimsical nature of how the design is explored and executed. I often infused my work with my quirky sense of humor.
YS : This collection is designed and fabricated by myself.
YS : In my opinion, mass-produced soft goods fasteners like snap buttons and zippers are fascinating. Firstly, they're industrial advancements that make certain functions easy to perform. Secondly, they dictate the form of closure to some extent, providing limited yet intriguing opportunities to design with or against the feature they present.
YS : Research was conducted on GenZ's consumer behavior in the category of fashion and footwear. With low brand loyalty and a contemporary view of value, what Gen Z are after is fresh concepts that grab their attentions, concepts that become the pieces and its value.
YS : There are reasons why zippers don't usually go under the bottom of the shoe. Some of these seemingly straight. forward concepts are actually more complicated to engineer to function while keeping a clean aesthetic.
YS : To further spread my design ideology though sharing the way I observe, think and make through my creations.
YS : Process should always be respected and paid 100% attention on, whether that's testing material properties, validating functions through prototyping or test fitting.
