Final Report Summary - SHOPINSTANTSHOE (Development of a cost-effective footwear based on shape memory materials to provide an instant fitting personalisation service at the retail shop )
Executive summary:
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 project is the development of a novel, ergonomic, customisable and fashionable women footwear upper and an innovative service providing customers with personalisation of the shoe fitting at the retail shop. Furthermore, new biomechanical and fitting customisation 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 research works will be carried out focused on biomechanic and material and composite fields.
Project context and objectives:
The 'Development of a cost-effective footwear based on shape memory materials to provide an instant fitting personalisation service at the retail shop for enhancing user's comfort' (SHOPINSTANTSHOE) project has been funded under the European Commission (EC)'s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) in order to develop an aesthetic, innovative, ergonomic, comfortable and customised women footwear. For that purpose, the use of a new material based on textile composites that will include shape memory alloys has been studied. This new footwear concept will improve the comfort of customers, and in some cases, will prevent the appearance of some slight foot pathologies that women normally suffer after a long use of inadequate footwear.
After this project, Calzamedi will set up a new service of women footwear personalisation on retail shops. For that, some basic measurements of the client's feet will be taken in store and, with the aid of a novel last that will have the possibility of adaptation to the client's feet geometry, will allow the configuration of the shoe last modifying the uppers intelligent material.
In the SHOPINSTANTSHOE project 7 European partners participated: 3 from Spain, Institute of Biomechanics of Valencia (coordinator of the project, Valencia), Calzamedi (Villena) and Incusa (Valencia), 2 from France, Texinov (Lyon) and Nimesis (Strasbourg) and 2 from the United Kingdom (UK), Surface Generation (Oakham) and The UK Materials Technology Research Institute (Melton Mowbray).
Project results:
Project results are the following ones:
(1) a shape memory alloy filament;
(2) a shape memory smart textile;
(3) a shape memory leather composite;
(4) a new personalisation shop tool; and
(5) a new customisable footwear upper.
In order to achieve these results, a research plan has been carried out. The work started with a study of the interaction between the women foot and footwear. It has been performed a review of the most important points and the main dimensional parameters that determine the shape of the foot. All these information has been used for determining the strategy for last personalisation and for obtaining the needed percentage of deformation of the upper material. Furthermore, several biocompatibility studies relating human being and shape memory alloys have been gathered in order to assure its suitability for being used in this application.
Relating the development of the shape memory leather composite, a mathematical model has been generated for simulating the behaviour of the new fabric concept, and determining the optimal configuration of its components. After that, a study has been performed in order to optimise the shape memory leather composite. A design of experiments has been done, varying the orientation of the shape memory filaments, the thickness of the intermediate foam, the outer leather and the separation of the filaments inside the textile. This study has been used, on the one hand, to select the optimal configuration of the composite, and on the other hand, to prove the proper performance of the shape memory leather composite before manufacturing the footwear: the composite is able to be deformed, maintains its deformed shape after load is removed, and recover its original shape after applying heat to its surface.
The shop tool development consisted on three main parts. The first one is relating the development of a new measuring system, able to measure the desired foot parameters of both left and right feet that are needed to personalise the footwear. The second part of the development, is the programming of the software, able to read automatically the foot dimensions provided by the measuring system, able to translate this foot information into last dimensions, and able to control the displacements of the lineal motors in order to achieve the desired last geometry. Finally, the last main part of the development has been the shaping system, that is, the part of the shop tool that modifies the footwear geometry. It consists of 10 lineal motors linked to 10 different levers with the shape of the footwears last. The shaping system also includes a heating device, which enables the footwear to recover its original shape.
Regarding the development of the footwear with shape memory properties, several tasks have been performed. First of all, an ergonomic last has been designed in order to fit perfectly a foot with average dimensions. This last geometry is the one used for manufacturing the footwear before being deformed to the customers foot dimensions. Some design criteria have been generated and applied into other footwear components such as insole, sole, counter, etc., in order to assure a proper biomechanical performance as well as a high level of comfort. After designing all the standard components of footwear, the manufacturing process has been modified in order to include the new shape memory leather composite in the footwear. The footwear including the new composite has the same aesthetic appearance than the standard footwear, being its manufacturing process only slightly modified.
Once the shape memory leather composite, the customisable footwear and the shop tool prototypes were completed, a deep analysis and validation of the system was performed. On the one hand, the performance of the measuring system, of the software and of the shaping system was checked. From this analysis, some recommendations in order to be implemented in the post-project commercial version of the shop tool were gathered. On the other hand, a validation with 15 real users with some special foot pathologies was carried out. Test consisted on wearing both the new developed footwear including shape memory textile composite after being personalised to the users foot dimensions, and standard footwear for comparison. Results show a very high level of comfort using the new developed footwear, although some optimisations are desired in the manufacturing process during the post-project exploitation in order to increase its functional performance.
Potential impact:
Relating strategic issues of the project, the product-service system has been defined, describing the purchase process, a business model approach and a marketing study on the consumer feedback. A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis has been also performed in order to detect the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the personalisation process. Furthermore, an exploitation plan has been developed including an economic analysis, including different scenarios depending on the number of retail shops interested in the personalisation system, and on the number of pair of footwear sold per season. Results demonstrate the economic feasibility of the personalisation system.
Several actions have been performed for disseminating the SHOPINSTANTSHOE project along the time. The logo and the website of the project (see http://www.instantshoe.com online) were prepared at the first months. A flyer and poster containing basic information of the new personalisation system has been designed and printed. Companies of the consortium have showed the poster and distribute flyers in several fairs during the development of the project. Articles have been published in magazines (DeviceMed and Revista de Biomecánica). Three press releases were prepared at the beginning, midterm and end of the project, and were sent to the press media. Several magazines, newspaper, television channels, radio channels and websites published some articles, interviews and reports about the project. A total of 61 impacts on different press media have been registered including information of the project.
The SHOPINSTANTSHOE project has already finished after 27 months of development. The results are very promising. The technology used for developing the Shop Tool prototype has been proved, and a composite based on leather with a textile including shape memory alloys has shown the ability to be deformed, as well as to recover its original shape after heating. Post-project industrialisation must be performed in order to generate a commercial version of the shop tool, and to optimise the performance of the shape memory properties of the final customisable footwear. After finishing the post-project industrialisation phase, users will benefit from the new footwear customisation service.
List of websites: http://www.instantshoe.com
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 project is the development of a novel, ergonomic, customisable and fashionable women footwear upper and an innovative service providing customers with personalisation of the shoe fitting at the retail shop. Furthermore, new biomechanical and fitting customisation 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 research works will be carried out focused on biomechanic and material and composite fields.
Project context and objectives:
The 'Development of a cost-effective footwear based on shape memory materials to provide an instant fitting personalisation service at the retail shop for enhancing user's comfort' (SHOPINSTANTSHOE) project has been funded under the European Commission (EC)'s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) in order to develop an aesthetic, innovative, ergonomic, comfortable and customised women footwear. For that purpose, the use of a new material based on textile composites that will include shape memory alloys has been studied. This new footwear concept will improve the comfort of customers, and in some cases, will prevent the appearance of some slight foot pathologies that women normally suffer after a long use of inadequate footwear.
After this project, Calzamedi will set up a new service of women footwear personalisation on retail shops. For that, some basic measurements of the client's feet will be taken in store and, with the aid of a novel last that will have the possibility of adaptation to the client's feet geometry, will allow the configuration of the shoe last modifying the uppers intelligent material.
In the SHOPINSTANTSHOE project 7 European partners participated: 3 from Spain, Institute of Biomechanics of Valencia (coordinator of the project, Valencia), Calzamedi (Villena) and Incusa (Valencia), 2 from France, Texinov (Lyon) and Nimesis (Strasbourg) and 2 from the United Kingdom (UK), Surface Generation (Oakham) and The UK Materials Technology Research Institute (Melton Mowbray).
Project results:
Project results are the following ones:
(1) a shape memory alloy filament;
(2) a shape memory smart textile;
(3) a shape memory leather composite;
(4) a new personalisation shop tool; and
(5) a new customisable footwear upper.
In order to achieve these results, a research plan has been carried out. The work started with a study of the interaction between the women foot and footwear. It has been performed a review of the most important points and the main dimensional parameters that determine the shape of the foot. All these information has been used for determining the strategy for last personalisation and for obtaining the needed percentage of deformation of the upper material. Furthermore, several biocompatibility studies relating human being and shape memory alloys have been gathered in order to assure its suitability for being used in this application.
Relating the development of the shape memory leather composite, a mathematical model has been generated for simulating the behaviour of the new fabric concept, and determining the optimal configuration of its components. After that, a study has been performed in order to optimise the shape memory leather composite. A design of experiments has been done, varying the orientation of the shape memory filaments, the thickness of the intermediate foam, the outer leather and the separation of the filaments inside the textile. This study has been used, on the one hand, to select the optimal configuration of the composite, and on the other hand, to prove the proper performance of the shape memory leather composite before manufacturing the footwear: the composite is able to be deformed, maintains its deformed shape after load is removed, and recover its original shape after applying heat to its surface.
The shop tool development consisted on three main parts. The first one is relating the development of a new measuring system, able to measure the desired foot parameters of both left and right feet that are needed to personalise the footwear. The second part of the development, is the programming of the software, able to read automatically the foot dimensions provided by the measuring system, able to translate this foot information into last dimensions, and able to control the displacements of the lineal motors in order to achieve the desired last geometry. Finally, the last main part of the development has been the shaping system, that is, the part of the shop tool that modifies the footwear geometry. It consists of 10 lineal motors linked to 10 different levers with the shape of the footwears last. The shaping system also includes a heating device, which enables the footwear to recover its original shape.
Regarding the development of the footwear with shape memory properties, several tasks have been performed. First of all, an ergonomic last has been designed in order to fit perfectly a foot with average dimensions. This last geometry is the one used for manufacturing the footwear before being deformed to the customers foot dimensions. Some design criteria have been generated and applied into other footwear components such as insole, sole, counter, etc., in order to assure a proper biomechanical performance as well as a high level of comfort. After designing all the standard components of footwear, the manufacturing process has been modified in order to include the new shape memory leather composite in the footwear. The footwear including the new composite has the same aesthetic appearance than the standard footwear, being its manufacturing process only slightly modified.
Once the shape memory leather composite, the customisable footwear and the shop tool prototypes were completed, a deep analysis and validation of the system was performed. On the one hand, the performance of the measuring system, of the software and of the shaping system was checked. From this analysis, some recommendations in order to be implemented in the post-project commercial version of the shop tool were gathered. On the other hand, a validation with 15 real users with some special foot pathologies was carried out. Test consisted on wearing both the new developed footwear including shape memory textile composite after being personalised to the users foot dimensions, and standard footwear for comparison. Results show a very high level of comfort using the new developed footwear, although some optimisations are desired in the manufacturing process during the post-project exploitation in order to increase its functional performance.
Potential impact:
Relating strategic issues of the project, the product-service system has been defined, describing the purchase process, a business model approach and a marketing study on the consumer feedback. A strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis has been also performed in order to detect the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the personalisation process. Furthermore, an exploitation plan has been developed including an economic analysis, including different scenarios depending on the number of retail shops interested in the personalisation system, and on the number of pair of footwear sold per season. Results demonstrate the economic feasibility of the personalisation system.
Several actions have been performed for disseminating the SHOPINSTANTSHOE project along the time. The logo and the website of the project (see http://www.instantshoe.com online) were prepared at the first months. A flyer and poster containing basic information of the new personalisation system has been designed and printed. Companies of the consortium have showed the poster and distribute flyers in several fairs during the development of the project. Articles have been published in magazines (DeviceMed and Revista de Biomecánica). Three press releases were prepared at the beginning, midterm and end of the project, and were sent to the press media. Several magazines, newspaper, television channels, radio channels and websites published some articles, interviews and reports about the project. A total of 61 impacts on different press media have been registered including information of the project.
The SHOPINSTANTSHOE project has already finished after 27 months of development. The results are very promising. The technology used for developing the Shop Tool prototype has been proved, and a composite based on leather with a textile including shape memory alloys has shown the ability to be deformed, as well as to recover its original shape after heating. Post-project industrialisation must be performed in order to generate a commercial version of the shop tool, and to optimise the performance of the shape memory properties of the final customisable footwear. After finishing the post-project industrialisation phase, users will benefit from the new footwear customisation service.
List of websites: http://www.instantshoe.com
