Design Role:  My first project with the RAC team. I was presented with an early concept of the shoe which featured a polymer heel and metal buckles. However, the soft polymer couldn’t support the buckles, making the mechanism unreliable and the step awkward and stiff. 

Taking inspiration from ski boot mechanics, I worked in collaboration with an engineer to completely rethink the mechanism: we minimized the size of the polymer part, moved the EVA midsole and outsole to the exterior of the polymer for better foot motion, a flat spring keeps the shoe open, once the foot slips in and pressed down, a mechanism at the back of the heel locks the shoe mechanism in place, and a added a heel button unlocks the mechanism. I developed the concept through ideation sketches, renderings, cut off shoes, 3D printed mockups, mechanism prototyping, and material sampling. This remained a conceptual project.