SHOEDES - Shoe Design (EN)

New Footwear
Designer
qualifications
for sustainable
products that
comply with the
emerging
demands of
circular economy

Project

There is an increasing pressure for reducing the environmental footprint of the industrial activities and for slowing down the climate change.

European Union has launched the “European Green Deal” action to boost the efficient use of resources by moving to a clean, circular economy in order to make the EU's economy sustainable. Previous projects and research efforts are mainly focused on eco-design tools and methodologies, such as life cycle assessment and others.

However, other important dimensions of sustainability such as the economy and the society are not given adequate attention. Sustainability requires an even economy development that respects and promotes equal opportunities. Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the EU’s economy, and the size of most footwear enterprises is small and/or very small. It is essential to strengthen them through activities that are in line with EU initiatives (e.g., “An economy that works for people”) that foster social fairness and prosperity.

What will we achieve by
implementing the project?

SHOEDES project aims at enhancing the skills of the professional designers through a cross-disciplinary training program, combining professional and transversal skills associated with creativeness, innovation, and sustainability, both technological and non-technological.

In this context, the SHOEDES objectives are:

To anticipate the job-related requirements of the future footwear designers more effectively and explore new and innovative business / entrepreneurship models based on sustainable products and footwear design for the circular economy.

To develop new framework career guidelines and paths for sustainable footwear design by exploiting existing European instruments and initiatives like Europass, “Economy that works for people”, “European Green Deal”, that will result in better-qualified footwear design professionals and better services and in the EU and Turkish footwear industry.

To develop new methodologies and learning tools based on MOOCs for re-engineering the training process targeted to the existing and future designers of the footwear industry.

Results

The project generally comprises a set of implementation activities that will materialise the project objectives, through the delivering of educational material in the form of reports, MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), Book of Lectures and new career and business models.

It will include research and validating activities, a set of multiplier events for dissemination, and intensive training workshops for the validation of the results. Project results and other outcomes:

A transnational report that will identify and analyse the characteristics of footwear design in terms of the three pillars of sustainability
A new framework for career guidelines and paths for sustainable footwear design
A MOOC on “Footwear Design for the Circular Economy”.
A Book with lectures on “Footwear Design for the Circular Economy”.
New and innovative business / entrepreneurship model based on footwear design for the circular economy.
Design-challenge competition in all partner countries for the design of footwear for the circular economy.
Intensive training and Workshops in all partners countries.
Multiplier event for disseminating in all countries