Gold Footwear, Shoes and Boots Design · 2020
Walk Of Mind Shoes
by Hadar Slassi
- A' Design Award 2020 Gold Winner in Footwear, Shoes and Boots Design
- Awarded April 15, 2020
- CLIENT: Walk of Mind
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 86,352
- Verification code 4753B5E5FB · Verify this award
About Walk Of Mind Shoes
Walk of Mind is a pair of shoes that combines digital fabrication with traditional craft. The structure is formed from five layers, called stratas. Three stratas are 3D printed in nylon 12 polymer using selective laser sintering. The other stratas are wet molded from vegetable-tanned leather. The stratas lock together geometrically and are joined by hand sewing. Each pair starts from a digital scan of a foot, so the fit is personal. The shoes are light and durable, and the method reduces the use of leather by 80 percent.
Emerging from the fertile intersection of biomimetic design and traditional leather craft, hadar slassi's Walk Of Mind Shoes represents a remarkable achievement in contemporary footwear design that elevates the quotidian object to the realm of contemplative art. The work demonstrates profound engagement with organic structural systems, its exterior lattice suggesting the cellular architecture found throughout nature, from the chambered patterns of honeycombs to the fenestrated surfaces of weathered bone or the delicate tracery of botanical specimens. This integration of natural morphology with human-scale functional design reflects broader contemporary movements toward biophilic aesthetics and sustainable thinking, where designers increasingly look to nature's time-tested solutions for formal and structural inspiration. The chromatic strategy reveals sophisticated understanding of color relationships, positioning cool blue-gray structural elements against warm coral interiors in a dialogue that speaks simultaneously of protection and welcome, exterior resilience and interior comfort. The golden stitching serves multiple functions, both securing the layered construction and creating visual pathways that guide the eye along the shoe's organic contours while introducing precious material associations that elevate perceived value. Technical execution demonstrates exceptional command of leather working traditions, with each cellular void hand-cut and finished to achieve consistency without sacrificing the subtle variations that confirm authentic handcraft. The scalloped boundary where structure meets upper creates a rhythm of shadow and highlight that changes dynamically with viewing angle, transforming the shoes into kinetic sculptures responsive to light and position. One might observe how the design philosophy seems to question conventional distinctions between interior and exterior, natural and manufactured, functional and decorative, inviting viewers to reconsider assumptions about what footwear can embody. What boundaries between art and utility does such work dissolve, and how might walking in such shoes transform the everyday act of locomotion into mindful movement?
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The strata compound method bridges gaps between modern digital technology and old-world craftsmanship. The project combines additive manufacturing 3D printed SLS mold of natural web cracked earth patterns, together with traditional wet molding vesicle forms (bumps), while weaving together nylon 12 polymer and vegetable-tanned leather. The shoe structure strength is acquired by all five stratas compound together creating a geometric lock enhanced by hand sewing. The design process begins with personal customization by using a digital scan of a certain foot.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- width 90 x depth 260 x height 100
- Tags
- 3D Print, SLS Print, Digital Craft, Wet Molding, Shoe Design, Vegetable tanned Leather, geological strata, Comfort Shoe Design, Bezalel Academy
- Production Technology
- The design process starts with very detailed planning at the digital stage taking into consideration all the aspects of binding all the stratas together. It requires a wide overview combined with detailed specifications to allow a precise assembly. The shoe design is a compound of 5 stratas. Triple of them designed on rhino software and grasshopper cod and printed in the SLS technique using nylon 12 polymer. Those stratas exactly match each other while taking into consideration the non-printed stratas (wet molded, vegetable-tanned leather pieces) that are compound afterward as well.
- Design Challenge
- The design process starts with very detailed planning right from the beginning taking into consideration all the aspects of binding all the stratas together. A wide overview and detailed specifications are required. The biggest challenge the designer faced, was cognitive. The need to think in advance of all the details of each of the shoe stratas from the sketch stage up until the digital stage.
- Project Duration
- Walk of mind was created between December 2019 - June 2019, as part of the designer final project from her BA. studies at Bezalel academy of arts and design at the jewelry and fashion department in Israel.
- Operation Flow
- Walk of mind has some notable advantages: The design begins with personal customization by using a digital scan of a certain foot. The shoes are very light - yet durable due to the skeleton they consist of and the leather compounding method. 3D printing allows using only the material you need with almost zero waste. The compounding method reduces the use of leather by 80 %: first, by using 3D printed stratas that form the skeleton of the shoe, second, by using small pieces of leather that enable wider usage of the same Raw material sheet of leather.
- Research
- Walk of mind project started and was inspired by the designer's early research on shoes and feet at Judaism. At the beginning the material research was all about traditional craftwork, trying to manipulate and encouraging the material into new horizons. Hadar's desire was designing shoes that will have a natural bond to the feet and also to the ground. The strata compound method at first was created as a Design solution and afterward developed to be an Innovative design methodology.
- Inspiration
- Walk of mind pioneers shoe hybrid fabrication design concept and explores a new approach to shoe design accompanied with new terminology. Using an originative shoe layering strata Compound method that retraces the known base hierarchy of function and shape in Shoe layers. Walk of mind shoes is a compound of five stratas. Strata - a geological term describe the fundamental earth unit. Hadar uses it to replace the known term in shoes - layer. The project started and was inspired by early research on Shoes and feet at Judaism, relying on spiritual yet earthly ground, the project allows the designer to inner examine her heritage and its values.
- Image Credits
- Image #1 Yael Moscovich, Image #2 Yael Moscovich, Image #3 Alon Morovich, Image #4 Alon Morovich, Image #5 Alon Morovich
Video Credits: Yael Moscovich
Colors of Walk Of Mind Shoes
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