Wreath Olympic Weightlifting Shoe
The Wreath Olympic Weightlifting shoes immediately stands out from the futuristic angular designs commonly seen in the world of weightlifting shoes today. This shoe was designed as part of DSGN 320: Intro to Industrial Design methods and is my favorite project to come out of the class.
Ideation
A mood board and audit board were created in order to provide structure to the ideation process. The audit board focused mostly on Olympic weightlifting shoes but also uses general footwear such as the Adidas 4DFWD, which utilized resin 3D Printing (big fan) as part of a unique midsole design. I also chose to include other crossfit shoes, such as the Nike Metcon 3 and 9, two of my personal favorite exercise shoes in recent history
The Mood board was focused on presenting ideas around ancient Greece that I wanted my shoes to convey, in particular the columns seen in many of their structures. I also wanted to include mythical influences such as Sisyphus and Atlas, as I felt there was some symbolism to be explored in comparing weightlifting to their stories.
Initial Sketches
A variety of initial sketches were thrown together, trying to tie in all the various ideas and concepts from the mood board above. You can tell that some of the concepts really tried to bring in the leather sandal aesthetic, which I think didn’t really work effectively. Next, the a few of the promising ideas were sharpened.
Next Steps
Out of the 6 ideas developed further, one stood out clearly to me as the idea to pursue. I felt that this concept brought a sense of elegance to a sport that a casual viewer may struggle to find in the sport of Olympic weightlifting
Final Design
The standout features of the design are the midsole that are symbolic of the strength and stability that the shoes bring towards the lifter. I also used a variety of textures and materials to add depth to the upper, including the embroidered laurel wreath that goes across the entire upper and Olympic logo that placed on the heel of the shoes. The primary material chosen was white leather, not something very common in trainers and running shoes today, with synthetic materials being much more prevalent. However, with weightlifting not being a long endurance sport that is dependent on the lightweight nature of the wearer, I felt that it was okay to use the material, which would also help create a different wear experience as the shoe became more and more broken in. The clasp across the upper also has a small metal pin that ties the entire shoe together.
Overall, I am extremely happy with how the design turned out and the next step will just be to fabricate a real one…
For a quick sneak peak, we can use Vizcom to create a render from our drawing:
