Sunday, April 20, 2008

Bicycle Shoe Project

One of my recent fascinations are bicycle shoes. Last year I picked up a pair of older (early 90's/late 80's NOS?) SIDI bike shoes- which I promptly took apart to see how they tick. A few days ago I picked up another pair of Italian shoes that look older than they really are (apparently). The shoes are interesting for a few reasons: the uppers are of an incredibly simple pattern, the combination of detailing and material choices to define the functionality and the hardware requirements.

I'm using these shoes as reference pieces to explore a bit of performance footwear, combining full leather construction with the functionality required of a bicycling shoe.

Instead of creating an original last for this exploration, I've had one of my lastmakers pick an athletic last model with a high toe-spring from his library to copy. Pictured is the pair of lasts, One of them is carefully taped for patterning.



I'll update on this project as it progresses.

Erick

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