What do y’all think about these ISPA shoes?
When I see articles like this, I always think back to that stat I posted a while back on the blog - 24 billion pairs of sneakers produced in 2019. 24 billion pairs - that’s 3 pairs for every man, woman and child in the world - in 2019 ALONE.
I also think about plastic water bottles and styrofoam packaging. And how I saw this polution EVERYWHERE while traveling throughout Southeast Asia and Africa. And how much I (personally) contributed to it. And I think about iPhones and laptops. And Keurig cups. And then the plastic products I’ve created and put out into the world (bags and shoe trees and card packaging). And anything else you can imagine. I always wonder about the first dude who made plastic…he was probably so stoked to have created something as useful as plastic and probably gave little to no thought of its impact 150 years later.
I’m not a designer by any means. I’d like to think that I notice good design, but I’m sure most people would like to think that about themselves. And with all the shitty design in the world, we can’t all be good at noticing good design. So.
Anyway, onto these shoes…I think it’s gotta be crazy as a designer to think of your next product not in terms of it’s useful life, but in terms of it’s degradation. Not about how people are going to *use* these things, but how they’re going to *throw them away* (or ‘recycle’ them). The shoes were designed with ‘disposing of them’ at the forefront. That’s gotta be an interesting task…
All that aside, I think it’s an interesting-looking shoe. I really like those multi-pod soles…they kinda remind me of the OG Nike Spiridon Soles or even the original Adidas ‘Feet You Wear’ soles. The whole package reminds me of that Footscape Utility thing…not terrible but also not something I’ve really dabbled in. Would you rock these?