Objective
The goal of this project is to establish guidelines that provide an aid in developing good, funtional children shoes. Current problems and design constraints existing in children footwear, as well as the influence of insoles in functional and comfort properties of footwear will be analysed. This knowledge will be used to develop guidelines with which children's shoes can be optimised. The participating partners, on a sound scientific basis with the use of new measuring methods, will be able to adapt their shoes to the special needs of their market segment and by this contribute to foot health. This project includes children from 1 to 12 years of age. The present project will be carried out in two phases. In first phase, precompetitive research will be conducted to define main problems and design factors, then in a second phase, guidelines will be produced with which better children's footwear can be developed. In a firt test new prototypes will be developed and evaluated to improve this set of guidelines. In this document work to carry out in both stages is described. According to data from the European Footwear Confederation, there are about 14,000 companies registered in this industrial sector and about 285,000 people who work directly in the manufacture of footwear in the European Union. The contribution to improve the children's health obeys to the consumers' demand for better quality of life. According to EUROSTAT in 1992 population under fifteen in the European Union was around 65 millions. The results of this project will permit the industries of the children's footwear subsector to increase their competitiveness though a product with great added value. Besides this, the project is focused towards the optimisation of the manufacturers existing capabilities, with a stabilizing effect on the price of the resulting product.
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CRS - Cooperative research contractsCoordinator
546 29 Thessaloniki
Greece