Driving Revenue Growth Through Innovative Footwear Design | Freelance Footwear Designer | Strategic Design, Storytelling, Market Insight
A pair of shoes often involves five countries. Design talent alone won't cut it. You need global collaboration. Here’s how it really works: • Design in one country, materials from another • Production across multiple nations • Seamless global coordination is key Your job? Ensure perfect alignment. Need support? I’ve got you covered- from design to commercialization. Want to know more? Check out the link in the comments below. 👇 P.S. What’s your experience with global production?
Scott Newton
2mo
Personally I have been involved with clients and footwear production for 24 years. Here is a 5 point summary of my experience and thinking: Decisions made on price alone never work out well. Re-locating production to a new country requires 2+ years to work out the bugs. Customers who purchase a defective product never come back. Your brand is your promise, and more than anything else you must deliver on this. Employee treatment and conditions correlate remarkably closely to quality. And to summarize this in one statement: Strategy is Mastery. A footwear brand with a clear Strategy and Brand Positioning will win every time. When this is deviated from, you end up where NIKE is today.
Alusine Kamara
2mo
I definitely look forward to collaborating with you at some point soonest, Erin Bornstein 👟as I’m about to launch my fashion brand anytime from now. It’s been a bit delayed, but I’d rather have a bit of that, than delivering below customer’s expectations 😊
Yes u are right.We are from SouthIndia,Tamilnadu and the companies here work for a lot of big brands for US and European markets.We hv PED Skills,manpower,finishing techniques, Leather ,machineries .Only the design ideas come from.abroad
John McCormack
2mo
Erin I don't see a link? Please post.
Casey Rakoczy
2mo
This is my job in a nutshell. It’s what makes communication back to a designer so difficult. How do I communicate the dozens of issues that arrive to their design as hurdles. From factory readiness, construction issues, late or defective materials, raw materials from countries with long holidays, sample quality vs. production quality, fit and functional testing, creating flexibility or breathability, removing grams from midsole compounds, material MOQ’s, sample room morale, proportions of a design on a last, container ships log jammed in Long Beach, and it goes on and on…. I don’t envy anyone else’s job, but it is thrilling to make product into reality from a few pdf’s and excel sheets. Designing a shoe, is just the tip of the iceberg.
Don Morrison
2mo
Increasingly, the entire supply chain needs to think about sustainability. It all starts with designers and material buyers. The problem of leather scrap can’t be “someone else’s problem.” It’s all of our problem.
Ram Ramanathan
2mo
The biggest complaints of sourcing out of India are delivery and quality ! Delivery delays are caused by big lead times and unreliable supply chain. Leather takes 4-6 weeks. Ornaments take 6-8 weeks ! Combine these with low productivity and poor product knowledge top-down … that’s a prescription for disaster Quality - many outdated tanneries work on small drum sizes. A 10,000 sqft would mean 4 to 6 supplies with different skin origins, water, chemicals and other goof ups that go with small lots. On the production side, low understanding of key product features make consistent quality a great effort. From where and what type of tapes to apply, to what and how much gum to use, settings on the sewing machines … This is my experience a decade ago and I would be happy to know that things have changed Tail-piece : the 4 year technical course in footwear in India has zero hands on training. They can write pages but can’t stitch an upper !
Gareth Rees
2mo
“You need global collaboration” Absolutely, and a good Product Lifecycle Management solution will enable that, removing silos and ensuring that everyone (including your suppliers) is working with a single version of the truth, rather than multiple e-mails, PDFs and spreadsheets. #PLM
Interesting
Executive Leader - Footwear, Consumer Goods, & Lifestyle Brands | Strategy & Operational Excellence | Innovation Thru Supply Chain | Develops High Performing Global Teams | Inspirational | Change Agent
2moGlobal production is the reality for 99% of businesses today. In footwear, it's not just the tier 1's you need to be focused on, but ensure the entire supply chain down to tier 4 aligns with your strategy and product goals. For footwear manufacturing itself, it's important to understand who the manufacturers are (assuming it's not owned and operated), what their expertise is as not every manufacturer can or should make every type of product, have clear quality and delivery KPIs, and then build a relationship with them to not only ensure that your product is delivered on-time with the best quality for the consumer, but that there is an increased understanding of each other throughout the process. This will enable a more successful long-term partnership versus a one-time transactional interaction.