SHOPINSTANTSHOE

Development of a cost-effective footwear based on shape memory materials to provide an instant fitting personalization service at the retail shop for enhancing user’s comfort

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Foot diseases are recognised as a wide societal problem and the large majority of people affected are women. The hallux valgus (commonly known as bunion) is the most frequent foot deformation affecting one every five women in adult age. This pathology along with others such as hammertoes, claw toes, metatarsalgies and ingrown nails take place at the forefoot and are mainly caused by the prolonged use of inadequate footwear (due to the mismatch between foot morphometry and footwear). Women fashionable footwear aesthetic constraints demand a more accurate fitting to guarantee footwear functionality and comfort. But differences in human foot morphometry between subjects make really difficult providing an appropriate fitting to each single user, and make women footwear especially uncomfortable and unhealthy. In addition to this, the European footwear industry must identify, assimilate and exploit new technologies to remain competitive as well as develop new concepts, targeting higher added value applications in high tech areas such as materials and composites. For these reasons, the main objective of this proposal is the development of a novel, ergonomic, customizable and fashionable women footwear upper and an innovative service providing customers with personalization of the shoe fitting at the retail shop. Furthermore new biomechanical and fitting customization criteria will be developed in order to improve the comfort of footwear as well as a new leather-based composite material including shape memory alloys. To achieve these objectives three research works will be carried out focused on biomechanics and materials & composites fields. As exploitable results of the project a shape memory alloy filament, a shape memory smart textile, a shape memory leather composite, a new personalization shop tool and a new customizable footwear upper.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Europe's footwear industry needs to exploit new technologies and develop new concepts, if it is to remain competitive. The SHOPINSTANTSHOE project was established in this context, for the benefit of EU consumers and businesses alike.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Backed by the EU, (http://www.instantshoe.com/(SHOPINSTANTSHOE)) proposed the development of a novel footwear upper and an innovative service offering customers a personalised shoe-fitting experience. Specifically, the objective was to develop an upper for women: aesthetic, comfortable, customised, ergonomic and innovative.

To this end, project researchers began with an extensive research exercise with findings on footwear and women's feet, and dimensional parameters determining foot morphometry. They also carried out biocompatibility studies in order to ensure that the proposed use of textile composites (including shape memory alloys) is suitable for the human condition.

SHOPINSTANTSHOE results were achieved by using shape memory alloy filament, shape memory smart textile, shape memory leather composite, new personalisation shop tool and new customisable footwear upper. For the shape memory leather composite, a mathematical model was generated for simulating the behaviour of the new fabric concept, and various studies were performed before manufacturing the footwear. Development of the shop tool covered three main areas: a new measuring system, software programming and the shaping system. The latter modifies the footwear geometry and has a heating device that enables the footwear to recover its original shape when not in use.

A system validation followed completion of the shape memory leather composite, customisable footwear and shop tool prototypes. This helped formulate certain recommendations for improvements to be implemented in the post-project commercial version of the shop tool. A validation exercise carried out with 15 real users with special foot pathologies returned positive results in terms of comfort, and highlighted optimisations that could increase functional performance.

Overall, SHOPINSTANTSHOE completed its project term with promising outcomes. Going forward, an industrialisation phase is needed to refine the final customisable footwear. Following that, users will also be able to enjoy a new footwear customisation service.