B3.1 REPORT

B3.1 INTERNSHIP

MANUEL SUAREZ PRAT

S118705 // MARINA TOETERS

HI-TEC SPORTS

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 4

LINE CLOSE AW14 16

ZUUK WIMBLEDON 22

J HOOK DEVICE 44

GLOBAL LAUNCH AW14 66

J HOOK DEVELOPMENT 74

ZW SAMPLES 1 AND 2 84

PROTO II SS15 92

CHINA 100

FINAL DEMO PLAY 126

NEXT STEPS 136

CONCLUSION 142

INTRODUCTIONHI-TEC

INTERNSHIP PROPOSAL

COMPANY COACH

STRUCTURE

NEGATIVE OF ELASTIC BAND MACHINE

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INTRODUCTION

People tend to focus too much on the what gear to wear while doing their daily sport activity and they sometimes forget what they should be wearing before and after that specific activity. After sports shoes or non-running shoes are the shoes that will adapt to the users necessities to cool down and get a better recovery.

This is a B3.1 internship in a company called Hi-Tec Sports, which is one of the global leader brands in outdoor footwear. This internship’s struc-ture consists in three different but linked themes; One is to design an after sport shoe that will improve the recovery of the user when finished exercise. Second theme is to design a J hook device that will display de product and the third theme is to follow the design and development process of the Product Team of the company throughout the collec-tions.

workers in Xie Xing Mould factory

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HI-TEC

Hi-Tec Sports is one of the world leaders in sports and outdoor foot-wear with distribution in approximately 85 countries. The company also has a brand of technical boots for people in uniform all over the world called Magnum. Hi-Tec is inspired by its chairman Fran Van Wezel who in 1974 founded the company creating a squash shoe that is still commercialized today selling over 19 million pairs throughout these 39 years.

Hi-Tec’s main volume of sales consists in hiking boots, but they have a wide range of products: snow boots, walking shoes, multi-sport, trail running, athletic, running, squash, tennis, golf, sandals, casual and even a clothing line.

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INTERNSHIP PROPOSALMy main goals described in my internship proposal were:

- Adapting my artistic skills to meet those skills needed to become a footwear designer. - Experience the design process from its first stages to functional foot wear design and real product. - Learn how to produce technical drawings for footwear design (I have done that before, during my fashion design studies and only related to clothing). - Discover and hopefully experience the whole of the footwear design market, the processes that it involves and how it is developing.

To fulfil every goal, my company coach consulted the creative director and he handed me a brief with the projects that I would be doing.

Along with the constant follow up of the entire Product Team with their daily basis activities, I had to focus on two project; design a second ver-sion of the “Zuuk” an after sport shoe launched in SS13, with over 160 thousand pairs sold worldwide and design a hook that will be used to display this product into retail

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COMPANY COACHGarie SellarGarie has been Hi-Tec’s Product Director for the last 16 years. He was assigned as my company coach. Together we set up a schedule and structure the time I was going to spend in the company and made sure I did not get out of track throughout the internship period of time. He also was the one to give me all the information about the distribution of the departments, timelines and deadlines in which the product team worked with. Garie put me in contact with the China staff to arrange my trip there to follow the production process of their products as well as setting up a schedule with visits and activities to several factories.

Simon BryantSimon has been the Global Range Manager in Hi-Tec for the last 5 years. Before working in Hi-Tec he was the Lifestyle Product manager in Clarks International. He was the product manager that first launched the Zuuk in SS13, and was the person that supervised my progress with the Zuuk as well as with the J hook device project.

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STRUCTURE

Throughout these 16 weeks of internship the volume of activities has been quite big. The report is divided into three main types of activities that at many points of the semester are linked together: Hi-Tec’s prod-uct team activities and events, after-sport shoe design and develop-ment, J hook device design and development.

The format that will be used is normal timeline format. This may be at some moments a bit confusing but it has a more realistic approach. In the real life designers as constantly working with several projects at the same time and in the footwear industry season collection usually overlap and one week they work with AW14 and the following week they have to come back to where they were in SS15 and so on.

LINE CLOSE AW14

Line Close is the fourth stage of any collection: first comes the design stage where the designers receive the brief from the Creative Direc-

tor and make many designs. After design stage comes Proto 1 stage, where from all of the first designs a filtered amount of them go to pro-totype sample production. With the first samples done, these samples

need to be revised and re-designed a developed on to the Proto 2 stage. After this stage the samples are supposed to be very close to what the product managers want them to look like. Again, another revision and development round with the samples of Proto 2 and Proto 2,5. Next

step is Line Close where there is still time for some minor adjustment suggested by the general managers if needed.

NEGATIVE OF WEBBINGS

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LINE CLOSE AW14Sales managers and general managers from US, Canada, UK, South Africa, Latin America and BENELUX have a look at the full AW2014 season exposed and exhibited by the Product Managers.

They have open discussions based on numbers of previous seasons, whether some models, colours, materials should be let down or not based on the sales of the past and retail price. New models are careful-ly examined.

These managers also have a look at how the marketing campaign would look and give their opinion and ideas. When all is done, it’s time for them to choose which shoes will they want for their market, some colours and materials work for some markets some don’t. By the end of the day there will be some models that will not be anymore in the collection based on the demand.

The next day, there will be a more individual discussion with each man-ager about the model and colour code that they chose and trying to unify as much as possible with every manager. Also volumes of sales are discussed here.

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LINE CLOSE AW14

After these managers leave, the next few days other manager from places with less important volume of sales come. Spain, Ja-pan and Middle East. The routine is the same as with the previous GMs but this time the collection is smaller based on the previous decisions.

After the Line Close week, all the aspects needed to be adjusted in the samples are quickly revised and sent back to their produc-tion factories as quick as possible to get the final samples ready for production for the Global Launch meeting, which will be in 7 weeks time.

ZUUK WIMBLEDON PROJECTBRIEF

ZUUK

INSPIRATION

DESIGN

ZUUK WIMBLEDON

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BRIEFProduct brief:Season SS 2015

Background:The flip-flop and sandal business has changed rapidly over recent years. Consumers now purchase branded products such as Reef, Haviannas for around $30 €30.Hi-Tec successfully launched the Zuuk, a mesh lightweight product that sits above flip-flops as an easy on, easy wear product. It is sold in the same man-ner as flip-flops i.e. self-select and on a J hook.

Brief:Expand this category into a new close toe and open toe product. Use the existing last and bottom unit.Target retail to be $50.Investigate how it can be best displayed and incorporate a branded J hook or display mechanism that attaches to the product in retail, but allows easy removal for self-service try on.

Consumer features:Light weigh, immediately comfortable, stylish, and packable. Great value.

Design:Needs to be fresh and innovative, a reason to buy an additional pair without detracting from the launch product. To build on a family DNA. Visible brand-ing required.

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ZUUK

The Zuuk, a mesh lightweight product launched for the Spring Summer 13 collection was the first j hook shoe for the company. It success was such, selling over 160 thousand pairs all over the world that it was present not just for SS 13 season but for the three next seasons as well. The purpose of creating the Zuuk was to open a new category of product for the brand, easy on easy off product, super lightweight and retail friendly; great value for a very low price.

It’s design is very simplistic and deconstructive. Having one material in the upper, one material for the lining and high pressure moulded EVA outsole giving as a result a product with a weight of only 180g.

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INSPIRATION

To look for inspiration, I got the main three values

that gave the Zuuk it identity: lightweight, easy to

wear, minimal design.

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INSPIRATIONFor the inspiration for the new Zuuk I focused on a big value in the com-pany: Heritage. Since I have a strong background in tennis, when you talk about heritage and tradition the word that comes to your mind is Wimbledon; the oldest and most prestigious tournament in the world of tennis. Since the Chairman is an active tennis player, I asked if Hi-Tec never sponsored the tournament or some top player that played in Wimbledon. Certainly Hi-Tec was the official footwear sponsor of the tournament during the 90’s, in fact it did sponsor as well one of the most talented players those days: Henry Leconte, a Frenchman former No 6 in the world.

Henry Leconte played Wimbledon in 1994 with the Hi-Tec’s ABC Wim-bledon, a symbol for the brand. Automatically I got my hands on that product and used it as a reference for the design of the Zuuk. What would Henry Leconte wear after his matches? That was question I needed to ask myself to have a solid and coherent design for the next Zuuk.

When looking for inspiration, I got my eyes on the Nike Presto; they are a very confortable product, very fresh look even though it is a design from 2000.

HENRY LECONTE

1994 WIMBLEDONNIKE PRESTO

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DESIGN

Going through the design process, it can be appreciated a strong influence of the Nike Prestos in the first designs. The idea was to do something similar but with a Hi-Tec look. The problem was the budget, in the brief I was handed I had a limit of 50$ for retail, that means no more than 10$ for production. The intention was to have a moulded piece of plastic logo that would give support once the laces were tied. This type of construction would raise the cost of the product to 12-14$ since every moulded piece is very expensive. I can only afford to have one moulded unit and that would be the out-sole.

PROCESS

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DESIGN

When moving on, to try to come up with something improved from the original Zuuk within the budget I marked out a few things that I thought that could be improved:

The plastic stopper that adjusts the elastic laces; who uses that in an after sport shoe? to experience it myself, I got a pair of Zuuks and used them for 2 months and I have never adjusted my laces, only the first time I put them on. Since the laces are elastic I just put them on and off without adjusting anything. That was one of the aspects I wanted to change in my design.

Second aspect I wanted to improve was to highlight the Hi-Tec logo the Harpoon. In the original Zuuk the logo seems that it was just stitched on top to make people see its Hi-Tec. I want the logo to be part of the de-sign and functionality.Third main aspect was to turn the materials around. I liked the texture and comfort of the air mesh, but for the lining not for the upper. I want-ed the shoe to give comfort from the inside out.

PROCESS

SHOELACE BEHIND

THE LOGO TAG

3D MESH

LINING

ORIGINAL

ZUUK DESIGN

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DESIGN

Before setting the definitive lines to the design, I prototyped a sample and wrapped it with paper tape and drew into

the shoe. After several corrections I finally got the intended shape and was ready to put it on paper.

FINAL DESIGN

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DESIGN

After discussing several designs with the Product Manager, I final-ly decided to go forward with this design. The influence of the ABC Wimbledon is clearly marked by the colours. Keeping the lining purple as the original Wimbledon as well as the logo and some green details bring this product back to the grass of the All England Lawn Tennis Club in 1994.

Single layer mesh for the upper and air mesh for the lining gives the Nike Prestos comfort and look, but for half the retail price as the Ni-ke’s. The purple webbing on the heel gives continuity to the harpoon and there is a green zigzag stitch on the back to give a playful and sophisticated look to the product. No more adjusting the elastic laces, no need. Just fit it in and out and no more plastic stoppers. I present to you the Zuuk Wimbledon.

FINAL DESIGN

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DESIGN

Once the design was set, in order to get the production sample I need-ed to send the details to the Hi-Tec team in China.

First page was to give an overall view of the product. Second page shows the stitching details and how the laces had to go underneath the tongue label. Third page of the spec gave information about the lining, and how the tongue needed to be attached to the upper. The last page was focused on the materials. It is appreciated that there are no pat-tern details in the specs: in Hi-Tec’s office in China they have a team of pattern masters that interpret the spec drawings and create patterns based on those.

I sent this specs document and the paper tape prototype with my inter-pretation of the design with the Design team to China. The design team spent 10 days in the China office to review the second stage of Spring Summer 15 season: Proto 1 review.There they will have a first look at the samples and give instructions to the local developers, in this stage it is very usual to have a complete dif-ferent look to what it should be, that is why there are two more rounds of sample productions and revisions.

FINAL DESIGN

J HOOK DEVICE PROJECTINTRO

RESEARCH & EXPLORATION

DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT

NEGATIVE OF NIKE TOWN LONDON’S THIRD FLOOR

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INTRO

HI-TEC’s current j-hooked device does not communicate any brand mes-sage in any way regarding the shape, colour, material, and functionality. The Zuuk model has been the first Hi-Tec shoe to be in this type of dis-play platform, not even sandals had been displayed in a J-hooked format. Because of the high demand they chose the fastest, cheapest, available product that was in the market to display the Zuuk’s. This was in SS13, there was supposed to be a research project about the j-hooked device but it was never made.

My goals were to design a j-hooked device that fits all Zuuk’s and san-dals that transmitted the brand message not just by the shape but also find a way to transmit it by the material used and usability. The company wants to approach the customer in a different way to distinguish them-selves from the other companies with j-hooked displayed products.

HI-TEC’S CURRENT

J HOOK DEVICE

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Since I was not very familiar with the J hook hangers and ways to present products in retail, I decided to visit the largest city in Europe: London.

I spent one week there going into shops and see how prod-ucts where presented and looking for inspiration. I did not just focus on the J hook device, but also the freestanding unit.

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Once back in the main office in Amsterdam, the design team was still away for the Proto1 review in China. I had a couple of days of brain-storming and compiling information in the web. When the team was back I discussed with my Company Coach all my progress concerning the project and he came back to me discarding the freestanding unit research, they wanted me to focus on the J hook device.

Having to use the available freestanding unit, the options to make some-thing radically different from the original design were not available any more. After many sketches and measurements I started the Prototyp-ing & Development process of the project.


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Taking into account that all Hi-Tec sandals, thongs and Zuuks had to fit the J hook, I designed one first prototype. It was very experimental since I did not know if it was going to give the support needed or if the meas-urements were going to fit properly into the products.

The hook was shaped with a more organic shape, because of the brand message. Hi-Tec is inspired by life and its nature. The prototype fitted pretty well the thongs, but did not fit as well as the Zuuk’s because of the width of the device and shortness of the arms.


PROTOTYPE 1

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For the second prototype I kept the organic shape, similar to a heart. The arms on the side got longer to get better support of the Zuuk.

The fitting of the Zuuk had improved slightly compared with the proto-type 1. Using prototype 2 for the thongs was good, the support was the same, but the J hook seemed too big for the product.

The material used for prototyping was 800g/m cardboard, a pretty strong cardboard, but still after fitting the products, there appeared to be a weak point in one edge of one of the arms of the hook.


PROTOTYPE 2

PROBLEM

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After the first two prototypes, I had a meeting with my Product Man-ager to discuss my progress. His main remarks were not to focus on thongs anymore, and to keep focusing on the Zuuk but this time adding sandals to the possible products to fit in the future prototypes.

Discarding the thongs as one of the target products made instant changes concerning the design. The arms were closer to each other this time and the actual hook part could get longer.

After the fitting with Zuuks and sandals, Zuuks were fine but there were two main problems concerning sandals fitting: The hook of the device was too short and was hitting the toe part of the sandal, and the arms of the device where too straight and did not match well with the design of the sandals.


PROTOTYPE 3

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Following the line of the organic shapes, the prototype 4 main changes where the hook and the curved arm cavities. The hook was an exper-imentation to see if this shape would work with the sandals, and the curved arms were to see if this time it would match with the sandals ankle support pieces.

Same as with prototype 3, fitting the Zuuk in was no problem. Sandals fitting were still not great, not because of the hook this time but be-cause of the curved cavities. Since they were too curved it had to be very carefully fitted in order not to get the J hook device stuck into any hole of the sandals design. I also didn’t give enough support to some types of sandals in the part of the toe; the arms were to short.


PROTOTYPE 4

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This prototype’s design has longer arms and less curved cavities be-tween them and a new design of the hook.

The results of the fitting with this prototype were very satisfactory com-pared with the previous designs. The longer arms finally gave the sup-port needed for those sandals that required it, and the curved cavities where easy to fit in the sandals. Zuuks fitting remained normal giving no problems. The only thing to improve was the design of the hook part; it was too weak and it needed to be a bit longer to make sure it did not touch some toe support pieces of the sandals.


PROTOTYPE 5

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The design of prototype6 was very similar to the previous proto-type; expect the hook design that it was a couple of millimetres longer and with a more solid design.

This prototype finally fulfilled all the requirements. It still was not too different from what is out there in the market.


PROTOTYPE 6

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Having already found a right shape for the fittings, the prototype 7,8 and 9 where just en exploration of the outline, to play with the similar organic shapes I have been using in the past several prototypes.


PROTOTYPE 7, 8, 9

P7

P8

P9

GLOBAL LAUNCH AW14

NEGATIVE OF OUTDOOR PERFORMANCE MANAGER DURING HIS PRODUCT PRESENTATION

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After receiving the samples of the Line Close revision, Global Launch is the last step for any season to go on to mass produc-tion and shipping. Unlike Line Close, this time the collection is finished and will not suffer any changes in terms on design and technical aspects. Global Launch is a big presentation to the sub-sidiaries all over the world and to the international Hi-Tec offices presenting the full collection, this time is AW14 collection. This is the moment where models and their volumes of shipments are ordered by the Hi-Tec international offices as well as multi-brand stores all over the world.

The format of presentation starts with the CEO giving a busi-ness update to everybody. The creative director continues with some product highlights. Later on, a marketing overview by the Marketing Director, and then the collection is presented by each of their Product Managers and their sections. The discussions here are not anymore about design and technical issues, but it’s more of a business point of view and trying to sell the product more like Apple keynotes.

GLOBAL LAUNCH AW14

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After Global Launch, for the product team the AW14 season is basically over and now they can focus only on the development of the SS15. The footwear technologist receives the production samples in all sizes and makes sure that the factory assigned to assemble that specific model is doing it properly avoiding any malfunction issue. This is can be a big problem sometimes, because the develop-ment samples are produced by a company in China that only builds development samples. Usually in very small volumes be-cause is usually for the Product Department. When it comes to normal production, normal factories are in charge of assembling the shoes and sometimes there are some differences between an assembly line in one factory and another assembly line in an-other factory than maybe has more experienced staff.

GLOBAL LAUNCH AW14

J HOOK DEVICE PROJECTPROTOTYPE 10

PROTOTYPE 11

PROTOTYPE 12

PROTOTYPE 13

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After the Global Launch presentation, I have not yet received the development sample of the Zuuk Wimbledon and there was still work to be done. During the GL meeting I had time to show my progress to the Creative Director, since he is only in the office once every two months. Concerning the J hook device, the main feedback was that it needed to be more “different”. The general view of my design was that maybe with a different shape, but more or less was the same every brand was doing. Another important turn to the development process was that it was not about sandals any-more. They wanted a J hook device only for the Zuuk model.

With the space limitations, I started thinking what I could do with the Zuuks to make them look different from others. Positioning of the shoes was one possibility so I started experimenting.

PROTOTYPE 10Prototype 10 uses the same shape of prototype 6 but just var-ies the positioning of the arms making one higher that the other. The fitting was no problem, same as prototype 6, giving some movement to the design.

J HOOK DEVICE

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PROTOTYPE 11

Having already started playing with the positioning of the shoes, I gave it one more turn and though why do the shoes always have to be on an upper view? Why not having one with upper and one with lateral or medial view?

Sharing the progress with the Product Manager, he was im-pressed with this concept and encouraged me to continue with this idea.

J HOOK DEVICE

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PROTOTYPE 12, 12A

Prototype 12 and 12A use the same concept of P11 but a bit more simplified concerning the arm that supported the shoe with the upper view, and reinforced the part of the hook.

After discussing it with the Product Manager we came to a con-clusion that this is the right way to go, but in any footwear prod-uct, the side that shows the most features is the lateral side and not the medial side which is the one that is shown in these last three prototypes.

J HOOK DEVICE12

12A

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PROTOTYPE 13

Having in mind the feedback from the previous prototypes, I de-signed the P14 to show an upper view on one shoe and a lateral view on the other. This design was the definitive design except for the hook part, which needed to be reviewed, but that will not come until the week before the final Demo Play.

J HOOK DEVICE

ZUUK WIMBLEDON PROJECTDEVELOPMENT SAMPLE 1

REVIEW

development sample 2

NEGATIVE OF DEVELOPMENT SAMPLE I

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During the development of Prototype 13 and 14 with the J hook device the development sample of the Zuuk Wimbledon arrived from China. The sample arrived with different colours than what it was ex-pected but it looked very good. This sample was to see if the pat-tern masters had interpreted the design in the right way.

After spending time with the Product Manager and a member of the company in China, we made a review of the sample for the development of the next prototype.

Things to improve:

1 Reshape slightly the harpoon so it doesn’t look heavy, thin ner PU (material used) and with some perforations. 2 Pull the lining out in the ankle part. 3 Reduce the tongue piece. 4 Stich the logo on the tongue so the knot of the laces doesn’t move from underneath it. 5 Add more support to the vamp (front part of the shoe) by adding an extra layer of air mesh. 6 Thicker Ortholite footbad, like Zuuk lite 4,5 mm

ZUUK WIMBLEDON

1

4

2

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5

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SHELL PATTERN REVEW

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With these instructions given to the member of the company in China, The final sample would be assembled within a couple of weeks right in time when I would be in China so I could bring the samples myself.

Before the final sample was made, they quickly produced a pre-fi-nal sample with the materials and colours intended to be defin-itive. There was something that needed to be improved: it was the logo stitched on the tongue. It did not look good so we decid-ed to stitch the knot straight into the tongue before placing the logo and then stitch it normally.

ZUUK WIMBLEDON

SS15 PROTO II REVIEW

NEGATIVE OF THE PROTO II MEETING

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With these instructions given to the member of the company in China, The final sample would be assembled within a couple of weeks right in time when I would be in China so I could bring the samples myself.

Before the final sample was made, they quickly produced a pre-fi-nal sample with the materials and colours intended to be defin-itive. There was something that needed to be improved: it was the logo stitched on the tongue. It did not look good so we decid-ed to stitch the knot straight into the tongue before placing the logo and then stitch it normally.


ONE OF THE SAMPLE REVIEW WITH THE ORIGINAL SHELL

PATTERN

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Once all these discussions are made, samples are placed into something similar to a price map where every single model is presented to the sales department. This is more like an internal Line Close where the product team shows the new season col-lection to the sales team.

After this, the Product managers meet with the designers to give them the instructions of the firsts days’ revision of the samples. With the corrections the designers fly out to China to spend a week developing the samples with corrections, colour codes and material changes with the local developers in order to get everything ready for the next round of samples for the Proto 2.5 review before the Line Close.


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CHINALAB

FACTORIES

SUPPLIERS

TANNERY

ZUUK WIMBLEDON

NEGATIVE OF SHOELACE FACTORY

When the designers have the trip to China to develop P2 samples I decided to join them for 10 days with the main goal of getting to know the production process of the companies products.

Before going to China the previous week my Company Coach made a plan-ning for me for the days that I would spend there in Jinjiang. I visited the Hi-Tec office where I spent some time in the Lab where they make all the tests to the material and samples to make sure they pass several security tests and more technical stuff, also in the office there is a sample room where they produce the development samples for the Product Team. When I was not in the office I was visiting factories; several assembly lines of different models of the brand, and visited as well a couple of suppliers of all types.

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When the designers had the trip to China to develop P2 samples I decided to join them for 10 days with the main goal of getting to know the production process of the companies products.

Hi-Tec works with a company called HTSCG, which is in charge of finding the right factories to produce their products, as well as development samples, material testing and logistics.

The first day I spent the entire day in the HTSCG office in the Lab-oratory System and Test method. This laboratory is where every material Hi-Tec uses is tested in order to reach a minimum of quality and determined properties. The laboratory will be certi-fied by SATRA in a few months. SATRA is the world leading au-thority on international legislation and testing of a wide range of products from leathers, clothing, textiles, toys, safety products, furniture and even cleaning & laundry products. For the laborato-ry to be certified by SATRA it needs to have certain quality stand-ards with the machines they use as well as test methods and staff qualification.

LABORATORY

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In this lab, the materials and shoes go through 43 different tests before going to mass production so the quality is guaranteed and certified. Water related tests are waterproof bending tests, water repellence, and humidity tests.

Hi-Tec is a company that usually works with all types of leathers and they need specific test machines to test leather abrasion, softness, cracking resistance, and waterproof.

Safety shoes are also in need to have special machines that test the toe load, foot impact load and all the other regular tests but with a higher number or repetitions

LABORATORY

WATER PROOF TESTSAFETY SHOES TEST

LEATHERS / PU TEST

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Velcro, zippers and shoelaces also go through exhaustive testing with abrasion tests, wear and tear in the case of Velcro and slide fasteners for the zippers.

Mostly any material used for the assembly of a product in Hi-Tec goes through abrasion tests, bending, electricity resistant, and UV testing (72h exposed to UV light, equivalent to 6 months to one year of use to determine the degree of discoloration).

There are also tests once the shoe is assembled, mainly bending tests where the shoes go through one million flexes in normal conditions as well as in extreme cold (-30 C) and afterwards examined to determine damage. Aging is also tested on the as-sembled product with 72h exposed over 70 C.

LABORATORY

shoe flexing machine

oven test

ZIPPER TEST outsole test

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After spending time in the Laboratory, I went to three factories where Hi-Tec has assembly lines for four different models. In Jinjiang area most of the factories are like “freelance” factories that usually assem-ble many brands products. One assembly team can work with sever-al brands in one day. How it usually works is that they have a certain amount of pairs that need to be done in a certain time. After that, there comes another brand with another volume of pairs to be assembled. Bigger companies like Nike have their own factories and assembly lines making their product cheaper and with more profit margin, but at the same time the volume they assemble is significantly higher than the companies that use the first type of factories.

For the assembly lines the procedure works in general terms the same with every product; the more features the product has the longer the assembly procedure like waterproof products need to have a water-proof membrane etc.

The assembly cannot start without a board of instruction saying where each pattern needs to be placed and the order of placement. Once that is clear, the stitching starts. In the assembly of any products there are a couple of factors that need to be taken into account:

The time; less time more quantity. Quality, more quality less time but having experienced employees gives the factory both quality and quanti-ty. This is why for some critical parts of the process they need very ex-perienced people of the job.

FACTORIES

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After stitching the patterns together, the last is inserted into the shoe to shape it properly. The first way start shaping the shoe to the last is heating the product, after the last is fitted using a system called board lasting; it can either be separated board lasting divided in toe, heel and side lasting or can be integral board lasting. This system uses high com-pression to the shoe to get the best fitting.

After this step, the midsole/outsole is cemented into the bottom part of the shoe previously heated and glued several times.

Once the last is taken apart from the shoe, the products are put togeth-er in pairs and each pair is carefully inspected to see if they look com-pletely alike. Passing the quality checks each pair is inserted into a box with all the labelling and now is ready to be shipped.

FACTORIES

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MOLD FACTORY

In Xie Xin Mould factory they are in charge of the production of the moulds for midsoles/outsoles of some of Hi-Tec’s products. The pro-cess starts with a Blue Print, which is a technical drawing of the design of the outsole. The factory has its own 3d modellers that interpret the design and create a 3d rendering which later on they send back to the Product Team with all the measurements to make sure the interpreta-tion is correct.

Once the 3d rendering is right, there is a machine, which shapes a mould card into the 3d render shape; this is called a wood print.

From the wood print it goes to a metal mould, which is the inverse shape of the wood print. The material intended of the outsole can change the composition of the metal, for example EVA outsoles/mid-soles need Aluminium moulds and rubber outsoles/midsoles need Iron moulds. Once these moulds are shaped, texture is added to the mould if needed. There are texture boards that are applied to the mould by hand and very carefully. After a certain times of use, the moulds need to be repaired and reused.

SUPPLIERS

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Shoelace FACTORY

The machines have many pivots that each one has one threat and they rotate around their on axis and around the centre, like planets on the solar system. In this factory they also produce elastic bands and webbings.

SUPPLIERS

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SHOE BOX FACTORY

Cardboard used for the shoe boxes has more than 7 layers of paper with different thicknesses. The top layer is screen-printed with the label-ling and sizing of the product, and then all the layers are glued together. Once the cardboard is dry, it is cut with the desired shape. Inside every Hi-Tec shoe box, there is a message from the Founder and Chairman Frank van Wezel, this message is printed through big rolls with the print on it. After all this process, the cardboard is ready to send it to the assembly lines location where it will be folded right before placing the product.

SUPPLIERS

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MIDSOLE SUPPLIER

It all begins with making the EVA. The method of production starts mix-ing several compounds containing foaming agents, filling agents, colour-ing agents etc. Each compound maintains a certain percentage to get different type of EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate).

The mixture is heated in an oven for a certain time. Then, the compound is transferred to rollers where once the material is cooled sheets of EVA are created.

Once the material is in sheets is cut into raw midsole shape of a prede-termined size. This raw shape into a moulding tool where the final mid-sole is formed under heat and pressure as is shaped into a final form after being cooled.

SUPPLIERS

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Feng An tannery is a supplier for many companies, Hi-Tec one of them. They import the leathers from USA and Argentina and separate the leather in layers. Usually the leather already comes separated, they buy the second best part of the leather, which is the suede.

What this factory does is put the raw hides into a large spinning drum, filled with water. This rinses the hides but also soaks it and makes it easier to work with making it more flexible and easier to cut and split later on. Later on the hides are fed into a machine that splits the leath-er into two layers. Both layers go into a large revolving drum once more, this time to be dyed with colorants for two hours.

The top layer of the hide stays how it is and the bottom part will be used for synthetic leather where the top part is usually PU with different types of thickness and textures that will be glued on top of the hide.

TANNERY

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During my stay in China, the HTSCG office was very busy producing de-velopment samples for the Product Team so the production of the Zuuk Wimbledon had to be stitched by another assembly line. When the sam-ple arrived it needed some adjustments and cement the outsole with the upper.

The bottom unit had to be placed, before all the pieces need to be stitched. Once ready the shoe is heated with vapour so it can adapt bet-ter to the last. The rest of the procedure is a regular assembly proce-dure already explained.

ZUUK WIMBLEDON

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Taking advantage of my stay in the HTSCG office, I decided to make and extra development sample for the Zuuk Wimbledon project with some improvements and explorations.

First of all I wanted to choose a different upper material, since the white single layer mesh of the upper of the Zuuk Wimbledon could get very dirty easily. I chose a navy jean canvas, not just because of the non-elas-tic material but also because of the thickness. The white upper of the Zuuk Wimbledon can get too thick especially around the vamp zone.

Another aspect to change in the design of the Zuuk Wimbledon was the heel part, the purple webbing and the zigzag stitching does not look terrible but thinking in a business point of view, it can be very dangerous taking into account that it needs to be perfect in order to look good for mass production and is a big risk that is not worth taking. I decided to use a webbing to cover the stitching line and forget about the horizontal webbing.

Already having experienced how the shoes are produced I marked and cut the patterns myself and unfortunately did not have enough time to stitch it. In my previous bachelor I practiced a lot with stitching but could put it in practice because of time issues. I left the instructions done right before leaving and a week later the sample arrived in the AMS office.

ZUUK WIMBLEDON

FINAL DEMO PLAY

NEGATIVE OF STAND IN THE FDP

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For the final Demo Play the main goal of the project was to show all my progress throughout these past months. The stand was divided in three parts:

The Zuuk Wimbledon product with posters of the inspiration and expla-nation, the J hook device with a short text of the process, small visual process of all the prototypes and a short text about the product it was displaying and finally the development samples showing the process.

To give more of a Wimbledon look, it all was displayed over artificial grass and a pained wooden sheet with the Hi-Tec logo and the name of the product.

One thing I changed before the exhibition was the design of the to part of the J hook device, that needed revision.

FINAL DEMO PLAY

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FEEDBACK

One very important aspect of the final Demo Play is the feedback re-ceived, it can be very useful for the future development of the product as well as for reflections.Comparing with other students, my work actually had 2 finished pairs on the table, so maybe that was why the feedback was not as creative as it can be when they see that something doesn’t look finished. General comments of a very solid display with good presentation and a professional look and people very impressed with the quality of the prod-ucts. No much negative feedback, only in terms of taste whether they like the design or not but not much feedback on what I could have done better.

FINAL DEMO PLAY

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NEXT STEPS

DISCUSSION PAGE

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

NEGATIVE OF OVEN TEMPERATURE IN FENG ANG TANNERY

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As a natural perfectionist, everything can be improved. My lack of experi-ence in the footwear business made me make many mistakes during the design and development process of the product. Having a look at the end result of both the J hook device and the Zuuk Wimbledon it is inevitable to try to think ahead.

The J hook device development will continue by Product Team, it is some-thing they see potential and will go forward with on that direction. They actu-ally showed my design during the Proto II meeting with the sales team. The fact that is 2dimension design makes the production cheaper and efficient when cutting the material and the fact that it can display the top and lateral view of the product they find it very interesting and unique.

NEXT STEPS

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For the Zuuk Wimbledon, I made a spec of how the next development sam-ple would look like. Main visual changes are situated on the heel, placing a webbing on the back hiding the seam that splits both lateral and medial side would look cleaner and better. Instead of the horizontal purple webbing on the heel, just keeping the same as the upper but with a closed seam on the top part of the heel with the same colour as the harpoon to give continuity to the logo.

Another thing to be improved is the tongue construction, it has to be sim-plified into just the shape of the tongue and only having one elastic band on each side to be attached to the sides. The current design has a wider tongue pattern and you can feel it once you put it on.

Last detail to be changed and most important is the material of the upper. Since the lining had to be purple and the upper white, I had to use two layers of air mesh; one purple and one white but showing the single layer mesh and hiding the air mesh face inside. Only one layer of air mesh makes the vamp have no support over the feet because the material can be very elas-tic.The idea could be to find something in between the current Zuuk Wimble-don and the prototype I made with the navy canvas in China; elastic enough to give freedom but not too much go give support and with air mesh for the lining to give the comfort of the original Zuuk Wimbledon. All this into a thin-ner material to give the product a lighter look.

NEXT STEPS CURRENT ZW

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What would I do if I had to do it again?

Now that I know how the production process and assembly many things would change. I would have done a much more detailed drawings and tech-nical details as well. I definitely regret not staying in China for a longer peri-od. 10 days was not enough for me, right when I was going to start stitching my own sample it was time for me to go. Also to visit more factories and do more hands on activities. Hopefully in the future I will have the chance to go back and continue learning.

To be the first intern Hi-Tec has had in their 39 years of history I have to be very thankful to the entire team. Maybe since no one in the office was used to having an intern around, there where a few moments that I would have liked more feedback. This is no criticism; I think is no ones fault since they are all busy doing their work with demanding deadlines and I did not want to bother but I really appreciated the time and effort spent on me. In those moments, I took my own decisions and kept with the development forward.

Other than that, this semester has been so successful and so positive I would not change many things that happened. I would do it again almost as it was.

DISCUSSION PAGE

PATTERN MASTER WORKING

HTSCG JINJIANG OFFICE

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I feel extremely lucky to be able to do an internship where I really wanted. I have a passion and a vocation, not everybody has it and the ones that do it is very difficult to do an intern in that specific field where you want to special-ize.

Not doing work related to footwear during this bachelor until now has giv-en me extra motivation to face this semester as a test to myself to find out what a real footwear designer/developer does and fin out if I see myself in this business.

My general comment is that I was very impressed on the amount of work that comes into a single pair of shoes, both handcraft and machinery.

There is no room for any negative conclusion. Everything that happened this past few months has been an amazing experience with a great team that has helped me so much and I have learned lots from them.

CONCLUSIONZW TOE LASTING

HTSCG JINJIANG SAMPLE ROOM

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- PAGE 6 Introduction: http://www.runnersworld.com/other-gear/and-af ter-0

- PAGE 8 Hi-Tec information: http://us.hi-tec.com/chairman.html

- PAGE 32 Henry Leconte Image: http://www.anp-archief.nl/ page/2246034/nl

- PAGE 32 Nike Presto Images: http://www.newshoesonsell.com/html/ nike%20presto/nike%20presto%20shoes/nike-shoes-presto-australia- free-shipping-nike-presto-chanjo-nike-presto-shoes.htm

- PAGE 102 SATRA information: http://www.satra.co.uk/portal/about. php

REFERENCES