CLIENT
TELEPORT Shoes
MY ROLE
Shoe design
Project management
Prototyping
Testing
Trend Analysis
The Gazer boot was one of the first shoes prototyped and manufactured in 2016 for the footwear brand, TELEPORT. You can view the development of the brand here. Throughout the manufacturing process, I managed the communication with our factories abroad for executing the prototype. The shoe went through several iterations and involved testing and sampling different types of materials and lasts (the shoe shape). At its launch, the design immediately gained popularity and sold out within a few months. Later on we produced a black version due to demand.
The concept for the shoe arose out of my love for space, and toying with the definition of Teleport: to transport or be transported across space and distance instantly. Wearing galaxies on your feet, I imagined, would be a playful way of embodying this idea as you transported yourself about your everyday life (such as from couch to refrigerator). I was further inspired by designs on the Fall/Winter runway (in particular, Valentino) who experimented with a juxtaposition of edgy metals and delicate details. Around this time, bold star prints were also gaining recognition and popularity. However, my goal was to aim for delicacy to make it unique.
RESEARCH + TESTING
To gather insights on what styles sold well, we used existing customer purchasing metrics to find the shoe lasts that consistently sold well over the years. Some data I considered included:
Google Analytics: What shoe collections were most visited on our website
What are common search terms?
What filters do customers commonly use?
Amazon bestsellers: What styles consistently sell well on Amazon?
Then, we further iterated on this using surveys sent out in newsletters or through social media. Some questions asked were:
Which of the following shoe styles is your next wardrobe staple?
What types of shoes are you most excited to shop for this upcoming season? 1) Heels 2) Booties 3) Sneakers 4) Flats 5) Other
What new trend are you dying to try out?
Through our research, we determines that Booties completely outperformed any other shoe style, and more specifically, a low heel was easy to wear for all occasions and fit the lifestyle of a wide population of people.
FINISHED PRODUCT
