Design a glove that meets the individual needs of the different Players consider – that is the goal of Emma Ehrenberg, Industrial Design student at Pforzheim University. For her shoe concept „ håb “ she now won the Global Footwear Award in the category „ Indoor-Sport “.
Emma Ehrenberg receives Global Footwear Award Photo: Pforzheim University
Handball is an intense sport that requires a lot of strength and speed and takes different demands on the shoe and foot in the outer, back and circle positions. Emma Ehrenberg knows these difficulties and focuses on modularity in her concept.
„ As a long-time handball player, I know from my own experience that today’s models just don’t respond to the needs of the different field positions.”
Emma Ehrenberg, industrial design student at Pforzheim University
Your shoe „ håb “ – the Danish short form for handball, the Danes are world-class players – consists of three components: Sole, outer shoe and inner shoe. The design of these components differs for the different playing positions and thus adapts to the different tasks. Small details, such as the triangular shaped outer edge, are also intended to reduce the risk of injury be minimized. In order to be able to design the fit ideally, the sole is composed of different layers and also deals with the athlete’s individual foot anatomy.
The student attaches particular importance to the sustainability and durability of her products. The materials used are largely circular, so they can be used again and again. Unlike common models, the components are also not glued tightly, but sewn. This gives „ håb “ the option of exchanging parts independently of one another in order to avoid material waste.
Adaptable to all field positions: Emma Ehrenberg’s shoe concept. Rendering: Emma Ehrenberg
The design student also presented her idea to professionals. The handball player Ioannis Fraggis praises the concept: „ It takes up all the important points for us, prevention, compression and stability. “ The jury too The Global Footwear Award was convinced of the idea and honored Emma Ehrenberg in the category „ Indoor-Sport “.
Benny Goldberg is redefining “peak” performance.
Goldberg (B.F.A., industrial design) has won the Global Footwear Award 2022 in Sports Performance, student division. His winning design, The Street Hiker, featuring colorways inspired by U.S. National Parks, is “designed to be worn by fashion and streetwear enthusiasts as they explore the urban world.”
“I set my alarm and woke up in the middle of the night to check the announcement,” Benny says, with a mixture of pride and disbelief. “To win is so sick.”
The highest global recognition for ground-breaking footwear designs, the Global Footwear Awards acknowledge both professional and emerging designers. Goldberg’s design was selected by an impressive panel of judges, including shoe designers, product managers, and style editors from powerhouses like Puma, Adidas, Hugo Boss, and British GQ.
Benny began designing his boot in The Development of Product Form (IDUS 250) with Professor Rafael Corazza in Spring 2021. As Benny recalls: “The project prompt was a mood board with luxury hiking gear. Some [of my classmates] designed flashlights, water bottles, and backpacks. I focused on footwear because that’s my passion.”
Benny sketched a boot with a rocky midsole, extending his concept to a plastic heel cup “like a mountain on the back.” He transferred early iPad sketches into Rhino and kept working.
“I saw Balenciaga and other companies making hiking-type boots, but people don’t really wear them to go hiking,” Benny says. “My idea was to bring the mountain to the street, so you’re literally walking on a mountain range as you walk down the street.”
Benny rendered the Street Hiker in Keyshot, selecting colorways eye-dropped from photographs of Glacier National, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon. He refined his design and its presentation in Fall 2021, in Portfolio and Resumé Development (IDUS 316) with Professor Paul McGroary.
“From the beginning of portfolio class, Benny had a strong vision of what he wanted to achieve, and he worked tirelessly to make that happen,” McGroary says. “He took chances, made wonderful mistakes, and developed. The result is an edgy set of deliverables that ooze design poise and professionalism.”
“Designing a shoe is really fun because it’s problem solving,” Benny says. “You know what you want it to look like, you’ve done the sketches, but getting the shapes to work, getting the lofts and lines to come together, that’s the challenge.”
Were Benny solely focused on academic projects, his Global Footwear win would be impressive. Yet this artist-athlete is also the starting goaltender for the SCAD men’s lacrosse team, whose season is now in full swing.
Growing up playing lacrosse and ice hockey in and around Birmingham, Michigan, Benny says he always felt like something of an outsider—until his parents sent him to Savannah for SCAD Summer Seminars, the pre-college program for high school students.
“My Summer Seminar experience changed me,” Benny says. “From that moment I owned the fact that I wanted to do art. SCAD has always felt like home to me.”
Facing a rapidly aging society, two UNNC PDM Year 4 students, Menghao Yuan and Yanzhe Wang, designed “Smart Slippers” which are not only comfortable to wear but also provide a caring and personalised healthcare solution for the elderly.
The “Smart Slippers” project was also awarded Global Footwear Awards Overall Winner in Special Awards, Winner in Social Impact, and Winner in Medical Footwear. The Global Footwear Award was founded by the Farmani Group, an organisation behind various competitions in the domains of design, architecture and photography (for example IDA, International Design Award). Its jury contains people from companies such as Adidas, Anta, Puma, Prada, Hugo Boss, etc. and is also supported by institutions such as RCA and MIT.
The Smart Slippers consist of two parts: a pressure-sensitive pair of footwear and a UI design for health monitoring.
“There will be about 418 million older adults aged 60 and above by 2035. The social-economic context, characterised by an inverted pyramid family structure and the number of “empty nesters”, has compromised traditional Chinese family support for older adults. Therefore, the slippers will help to monitor and record the basic health data, amount of exercise every day. When an emergency happened, the app will also contact the person directly,” said a team member.
The “Smart Slipper” looks simple, but it is in fact a well-thought-out design. Firstly, the part of the slipper that wraps around the foot is made with 3D knitting technology. Additionally, the fabric inside the slipper is capable of interacting with pressure from its external environment. It is a breakthrough compared to most ‘lab slippers’ that have pressure sensors directly attached to them.
The highlight of this project is not only the product design itself, but also its motivation and humanistic approach: the care of elderly people. The sophisticated design of the slippers is part of a health monitoring system that monitors the status of elderly people, giving them an extra measure of peace of mind when living alone.
Dr Martijn ten Bhömer, previous Assistant Professor and now an industrial consultant for the PDM programme, said that there are a few iconic industrial design products, which students always feel passionate about and can be great showcases to show the skills and knowledge they built up during their education, for example, car and furniture design. Without a doubt, footwear also belongs in this category. Footwear is an iconic type of product for industrial designers, as it is a highly complex combination of design, materials, manufacturing and technology.
“It is a great honour that this award demonstrates the education and extra-curricular activities of UNNC’s Product Design & Manufacture are so valuable for industry and society. I’m especially proud that the students not only won as an overall winner, but also won awards in the categories of social impact and medical footwear. This shows the ability of our students to consider important societal and user-centred principles in their design work,” said Martijn.
During the research and development process, these two students encountered many difficulties. For example, when they went to Santoni Company Shanghai to make the prototype, they were told that the 3D knitting machine was not ready yet, so they could only use 2D fabric to make the prototype. This was an escalating challenge for the students, who had never been involved in manufacturing before. The prototypes they made at first were far from what they had imagined in terms of wrapping and appearance. It was only after trial and many modifications that they discovered the knack of cutting and finally, with the help of the experts in factory, they were able to produce the ideal prototype sample. Most importantly, the student told us that he was grateful for the teamwork and efforts everyone put in this project.
Academic staff in the PDM programme are also committed to providing students with more industry related design projects, helping students to gain an in-depth understanding of the whole product design cycle.
The Global Footwear Awards is partnering with the China Leather Association and Wenzhou Municipal People’s Government organizer of the first “Red Boots Award” to provide a new set of benefits to the GFA’s winners to showcase their work to the fast-growing footwear industry in China and find strategic partners to produce their shoe concept.
Global Footwear Awards recognizes visionary out-of-the-box thinkers from around the world with an ambition to provide the highest recognition to footwear designers in all footwear divisions, from Fashion to Sports. Entries are evaluated at three different levels: Brands, Independent Designers, and students, in order to provide a fair opportunity for each level. With 24 categories, the Global Footwear Awards honors strategic thinking and innovative solutions from medical footwear, to running and trails, vegan, recycled materials to those having a positive social impact with inspiring collaboration.
The “Red Boots Design” advocates product innovation driven by design creativity, highlighting the commercialization and marketization of design achievements; introducing the local footwear industry in Wenzhou, igniting cooperation between designers, design colleges, and enterprises, and leading the design trend vane of China’s footwear industry.
In December 2022, China Leather Association and Wenzhou Municipal People’s Government will invite experts and scholars, industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and fashion buyers from developed countries such as Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam to explore the new ecology of fashion trends in China’s footwear industry, draw a new blueprint for the development of China’s footwear industry, and promote the transformation and upgrading of China’s footwear industry.
The organizers of “Red Boots Design” not only provide generous bonuses to encourage the designers but also release a series of supporting and recruiting policies to attract outstanding designers to launch their careers in Wenzhou. Also, after the competition, the organizers will collaborate with partners from the academic and industrial circle to provide resources for winners, and help them implement their programs, as well as produce, promote and sell their products, thus gathering domestic and international resources of footwear design, building a hundred billion footwear industry cluster, and establishing an open, prosperous, and vigorous ecological chain for the global footwear industry.
The 2022 Global Footwear Awards winners will be invited to join the “Red Boot Awards” to submit their designs which will be reviewed by industry experts made of Chinese and International Jury members to win a trip to Wenzhou, China; meet local manufacturers, receive concept counseling and potentially start producing their awarded Footwear Design.
GFA Program Manager, Jennifer Cullera shared her thoughts on the exclusive partnership, “We are thrilled to now provide a unique opportunity for talented designers to realize their dreams – meet Footwear Manufacturers to potentially start production”.
The Global Footwear Awards recognizes the efforts of talented footwear designers around the world and aims to celebrate their exceptional creations at a global scale while honoring sustainable practices that will inspire the industry as a whole.
About Farmani Group
Established in 1985, Farmani Group is responsible for many successful awards programs around the globe, including the International Design Awards (IDA), Architecture Masterprize, DNA Paris Design Awards, London International Creative Awards, Prix de la Photographie in Paris, and the Annual Lucie Awards for Photography, which has emerged as one of the world’s most prestigious awards.
Global Footwear Awards announces Winners for GFA x Shoe Girls Up-and-Coming Female Footwear Designers.
The Global Footwear Awards and Shoe Girls Studio just announced the winners of the GFA x Shoe Girls Up-and-Coming-Female Footwear Designers, celebrating the incredible female talents in fashion. With its ongoing mission to uncover visionary design talents, the GFA and Shoe Girls Studio hope to encourage creative female designers to showcase their exceptional designs by creating a special award specifically for female footwear designers, to help develop their footwear concept with support in design, development, and production, including more sustainable sourcing.
“Shoe Girls Studio’s founding focus is to make space for women in a male-dominated industry. We provide a supportive design development process that lifts female-led footwear startups. We are excited to work with the winning designer to develop their vision further and bring their brand to life”, said Mar Espanol, Shoe Girls Studio Co-Founder.
GFA x Shoe Girls Up-And-Coming Female Footwear Brand The Fibonacci Mule by Sarah Diab
Winning designers will receive a free consultation from Shoe Girls to help kick-start their business while being a part of the GFA network of footwear professionals and benefiting from the GFA marketing campaigns, press releases, newsletters, interviews, and promotions.
“Shoe Girls Studio has been very passionate about supporting women in the footwear industry and we’ve found common values in celebrating female footwear designers together. We’re grateful for their generosity to utilize their footwear expertise to help shape footwear businesses for women in different stages of the process“, said GFA Director Siramol On-Sri.
View all GFA x Shoe Girls Winning Designers here:
GFA x Shoe Girls Up-And-Coming Female Footwear Designer Tabi Flow by Haoran Qi
Shoe Girls Studio is a New York-based creative footwear consultancy known for our high-touch and custom-fit collaborative approach to footwear and accessories design and development. With more than a decade of industry experience and a vast international network, Shoe Girls talented team of designers and product developers take a hands-on approach with clients, producing products that are both classic and innovative.
Global Footwear Awards announces Winners for GFA x SBW Up-and-Coming Female Sneaker Designers.
The Global Footwear Awards and Sneakers By Women (SBW) just announced the winners of the GFA x SBW Up-and-Coming-Female Sneaker Designers, celebrating the incredible female talents in streetwear and sneaker culture. With this special partnership with Sneakers By Women, we are able to connect our female talents with industry experts through GFA and SBW community.
“One of SBW’s main goals is to educate and inspire the next generation of females entering the sneaker industry. To recognise and congratulate those women through GFA, as well as providing the tools they need to thrive through access to a roster of sneaker industry. Each applicants designs beautifully combined creativity with innovation, it was so hard pick my favourites”, said Julia Lebosse, founder of Sneakers by Women
GFA x SBW Up-And-Coming Female Sneakers Brand The Prelude Brittney Perry – Perryco Shoes
Winning designers in this special category will receive mentorship support by footwear professionals through GFA and SBW community to help further their career, while benefiting from the GFA marketing campaigns, press releases, newsletters, interviews, and promotions
“Julia truly is the voice of today’s generation, advocating for female footwear designers. We are so excited to partner with her and build together a global platform that provides exposure and support, and inspires many more female sneaker designers to come”, added GFA Director Siramol On-Sri.
GFA x SBW Up-And-Coming Female Sneakers Designer Inspire Change Initiative by Gloria Rose Mackaya – University of the Arts London
Sneakers by Women (SBW) is an online platform/community that celebrates the unsung female heroes that work within the industry that define streetwear and sneaker culture. While shedding light on industry inequalities and problems women face. The main goal being to continue to grow a community of female and male allies who will collectively advocate for a more diverse sneaker industry! Through this inspiring and encouraging the next generation of women to thrive in the ever evolving sneaker world.
The Global Footwear Awards 2022 Best Overall Winners Announced
The Global Footwear Design Awards (GFA) is announcing winners for its 3rd edition, showcasing a variety of exceptional creative potential across 20+ categories in all levels; Brands, Independent, and Students. The GFA recognizes visionary design talent from around the world with an ambition to provide the highest recognition to footwear designers in all categories including sustainability and social impact.
For the first time, The Global Footwear Awards is partnering with the RedBoots Award to provide a new set of benefits to the GFA’s winners to showcase their work to the fast-growing footwear industry in China and find strategic partners to produce their shoe concept.
The “Red Boots Design” advocates product innovation driven by design creativity, highlighting the commercialization and marketization of design achievements; introducing the local footwear industry in Wenzhou, igniting cooperation between designers, design colleges, and enterprises, and leading the design trend vane of China’s footwear industry.
The GFA jury panel consists of leading industry professionals coming from different disciplines within the footwear industry, including publications, retailers, institutions, and the footwear guru in the industry, providing an overall industry perspective towards the selection of the best designs. Here are some of our jury’s words:
“The Global Footwear Awards is a great competition for both, young and aspiring designers to showcase their concepts and also for established brands to let their work compete against each other.” Timon Kuhlenkamp, On Running Footwear Designer.
“Apart from enjoying the variety in creativity, I was most happy to see that more and more designers start to think of footwear as an area to tackle socio-political issues and so plays a part in taking the discipline beyond only reproducing styles of fashion, and playing with technology, and engaging with real-life issues.” Eelko Moorer, LCF MA footwear course leader.
Congratulations to all winners on their outstanding work!
“It’s been such an exciting journey seeing all the work this year. The level of creativity conjointly with innovation and sustainability made us realise why we do what we do. I hope that our platform encourages many more aspiring designers, professionals, and brands to continue pushing boundaries of design as we provide space and exposure for their creative visions to ignite.” Jennifer Cullera, GFA Managing Director.
To learn more about GFA’s award structure and winner benefits, and more, click here. For any press inquiries, email.info@globalfootwearawards.
The Global Footwear Awards is now accepting submissions for its third edition. Footwear designers from across the globe are invited to showcase their latest designs with a mission to showcase established designers and uncover visionary emerging talents.
The GFA recognizes visionary out-of-the-box thinkers from around the world with an ambition to provide the highest recognition to footwear designers in all footwear divisions, from Fashion to Sports. Entries are evaluated at three differlevels: Brands, Independent Designers and students, tode a fair opportunity for each level.
With 24 categories, the Global Footwear Awards honors strategic thinking and innovative solutions from medical footwear, to running and trails, vegan, recycled materials to those having a positive social impact with inspiring collaboration.
In 2021, the program honored outstanding designers including Noriyuki Misawa, Lise De Smet in the Women Fashioncategory, Jean-marc Djian in the Trail running category, Brittney Perry for Perryco Shoesand Ma, rshall Westlake for the biodegradable footwear.
GFA Program Manager, Jennifer Cullera shared her thoughts on the upcoming competition, “I am very grateful to be part of this amazing program and excited to see extraordinary creations from professionals and emerging designers.”
Jury member Timon Kuhlenkamp shared their hopes for the upcoming competition, “The Global Footwear Awards is a great competition for young and aspiring designers to showcase their concepts and also for established brands to let their work compete against each other.”
The Global Footwear Awards jury panel consists of leading international professionals working in the footwear industry, including renowned footwear professionals, major publications, retailers, and design institutions. Past jurors have included Flora McLean, Senior Lecturer of Footwear and Accessories at Royal College of Art in London; Anna Maria Giano, Contributing Editor at Vogue Italia, Julia Lebosse founder of Sneakers by Women; Arnau Sanjuan, Design Director at adidasAdidasany more. The judges are on the lookout for extraordinary designers who are producing sustainable as well as exceptional creations.
“This year we hope to reach many more international designers, especially among young footwear enthusiasts. The sneaker design revolution and fan collections have grown massively over the last decade. With the footwear market growing to nearly $400 Billion a year, it’s essential to highlight the truly outstanding designs in this global industry.” said Hossein Farmani, President of Farmani Group, then added, “We are an independent design award honoring the individual designers as much as the big brands, and encouraging amateur and student designers to share their fresh creative vision with the leaders of the industry”.
Registration for the Global Footwear Awards is now open and will close on January 15th, 2023. The early submission discount will end on August 31st and enable participants to submit their visionary projects at a discount.
No glue / No-sew / Limited materials / Easy to disassemble or repair / Simple to Recycle
About Global Footwear Awards
The Global Footwear Awards recognizes the efforts of talented footwear designers around the world and aims to celebrate their exceptional creations at a global scale while honoring sustainable practices that will inspire the industry as a whole.
About Farmani Group
Established in 1985, Farmani Group is responsible for many successful awards programs around the globe, including the International Design Awards (IDA), Architecture Masterprize, DNA Paris Design Awards, London International Creative Awards, Prix de la Photographie in Paris, and the Annual Lucie Awards for Photography, which has emerged as one of the world’s most prestigious awards.
The Global Footwear Awards 2021 Best Overall Winners Announced
The Global Footwear Design Awards (GFA) is announcing winners for its second edition, showcasing a variety of exceptional creative potential across 20+ categories in all levels; Brands, Independent and Students. The GFA recognizes visionary design talent from around the world with an ambition to provide the highest recognition to footwear designers in all categories including sustainability and social impact.
For the first time, The Global Footwear Awards is partnering with Sneakers By Women and Shoe Girls Studio to launch special awards specifically for female footwear designers with a mission to provide greater exposures for aspiring female footwear design professionals as well as emerging designers.
“One of Sneakers By Women’s main goals is to educate and inspire the next generation of females entering the sneaker industry. To recognise and congratulate those women through GFA, as well as providing the tools they need to thrive through access to a roster of sneaker industry.” Julia Lebosse, Founder of Sneakers By Women
The GFA jury panel consists of leading industry professionals coming from different disciplines within the footwear industry, including publications, retailers, institutions and the footwear guru in the industry, providing an overall industry perspective towards the selection of the best designs. Here are some of our jury’s words:
“The GlobalFootwearAwards is a great competition for both, young and aspiring designers to showcase their concepts and also for established brands to let their work compete against each other.” Timon Kuhlenkamp, On Running Footwear Designer.
“Apart from enjoying the variety in creativity I was most happy to see that more and more designers start to think of footwear as an area to tackle socio-political issues and so plays a part in taking the discipline beyond only reproducing styles of fashion, and playing with technology, and engaging with real-life issues.” Eelko Moorer, LCF MA footwear course leader.
Congratulations to all winners on their outstanding works!
“It’s been such an exciting journey seeing all the work this year. The level of creativity conjointly with innovation and sustainability made us realised why we do what we do. I hope that our platform encourages many more aspiring designers, professionals and brands to continue pushing boundaries of design as we provide space and exposure for their creative visions to ignite.” Siramol On-Sri, GFA Managing Director.
To learn more about GFA’s award structure and winner benefits, and more, click here. For any press enquiries, emailsupport@globalfootwearawards.
Global Footwear Awards Best Overall Designs Announced
Los Angeles, CA –Farmani Group launched The Global Footwear Design Awards (GFA) for the first time as a sister awards alongside IDA International Design Award. The GFA recognizes visionary design talent from around the world with an ambition to provide the highest recognition to footwear designers in all categories including sustainability and medical footwear.
The GFA jury panel consists of leading industry professionals coming from different disciplines within the footwear industry, including publications, retailers, institutions and the footwear guru in the industry, providing an overall industry perspective towards the selection of the best designs. Here are some of our jury’s words:
“Having judged the awards and really investigated what each brand/trainer was about, it was so great to see a dedication to sustainability and ethical practices on so many fronts. It’s one thing designing and manufacturing great-looking shoes, but to do so and achieve a high-level of sustainable awareness at the same time is applaudable.” Zak Maoui, British GQ Style Editor.
“The GlobalFootwearAwards is a great competition for both, young and aspiring designers to showcase their concepts and also for established brands to let their work compete against each other.” Timon Kuhlenkamp, On Running Footwear Designer.
“Apart from enjoying the variety in creativity I was most happy to see that more and more designers start to think of footwear as an area to tackle socio-political issues and so plays a part in taking the discipline beyond only reproducing styles of fashion, and playing with technology, and engaging with real-life issues.”Eelko Moorer, LCF MA footwear course leader.
Congratulations to all winners on their outstanding works!
The Global Footwear Design Award’s Founder, Hossein Farmani, commented, “Our esteemed jury members have worked hard to select the best projects. We are proud to present the Winners of our inaugural year, celebrating the creativity and talent of incredible design Footwear from around the world, giving them the global exposure they deserve.”
To learn more about GFA’s submission criteria and award structure, winner benefits, and more, click here. For any press enquiries, email team@globalfootwearawards
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