Introduction
At Stride 2025, we brought together some of the sharpest minds in footwear – from luxury and sport to computational design and sustainability – to tackle the nuanced question: how can traditional craftsmanship and digital innovation truly work together?
In an industry racing to adopt AI, 3D, and new digital workflows, this panel went deeper. They explored not just tools, but the soul of making; asking what we risk losing, how to preserve the artistry of shoemaking, and what the future might look like if we build it right.
Meet the Speakers:
Susan Sokolowski VP – Footwear Innovation, lululemon
Miranda Morrison VP – Design & Sustainability, Steve Madden
Onur Gun Director – Computational Design, New Balance
Matteo Burzio Head of 3D Footwear Design, Luxury Footwear Brand
Brett Golliff Creative Design Director & Consultant, GPGD
Mark Vickers Sr. Director – DPC Technology,VF Corp
James Carnes Chief of Staff, HILOS Studio
🎥 Watch the full video interview below!
Don’t have time to watch the full video? Scroll down for a summary of key takeaways and noteworthy quotes.
Key Takeaways
1️⃣ Digital Innovation Can Elevate vs Replace Artistry
True craftsmanship is as vital today as it ever was – it just maybe looks a little different. Matteo Burzio stressed that for him, crafting a shoe in 3D still draws on the same principles as hand-building one on the bench: attention to proportion, detail, and function.
It’s the same approach, just different tools
Miranda Morrison, who’s spent decades designing shoes by hand, reminded us of what’s at stake:
You can’t dismiss the feel of how it holds the foot, how it pitches, how it looks in real space – things you only learn from master craftsmen.
The clear and overriding message: innovation and artistry aren’t trade-offs. The best work happens when technology elevates the sensibilities honed by centuries of shoemaking tradition.
2️⃣ Tools Should Serve Creativity, Not Shackle It
James Carnes captured a pivotal shift underway: after decades of forcing design to adapt to technology, we’re finally designing technology that adapts to designers.
We spent years changing the creative process to fit the tools. Now we’re finally building tools to fit how we naturally create.
Onur Gun drew an elegant parallel to computational design, describing code as a new kind of stitching, where you bring disparate parts together conceptually. But even as digital tools become more powerful, they’re still just tools; your hand is still the fastest connection to your brain, whether it’s holding a pencil or a mouse. It’s only when tech respects this human-first dynamic that true creativity flourishes.
3️⃣There is Power in Platforms Over Prescriptive Tools
James Carnes and Mark Vickers both leaned into the idea that future innovation in digital workflows isn’t about enforcing one single tool, but about building platforms or ecosystems that let designers and developers integrate whatever tools suit their craft, while still bringing it all together in a unified process.
Why try to standardize creativity to fit a single tool? A platform that brings sketches, Illustrator, hand drawings, Rhino – all together – is far more powerful.
Mark noted how the Universal Scene Description (USD) format coming from gaming and VFX could be a breakthrough, allowing all these disparate tools to speak the same language, thus preserving creative diversity while still enabling a coherent pipeline.
4️⃣ Honor Imperfection Because It Makes Products Feel Alive
Miranda told a striking story about digitally wrapping patterns around a shoe last, only to find the outcome looked “dead in the hand.” It was technically flawless, yet aesthetically off. The fix? Going back in by hand to introduce the subtle tweaks the eye and fingers know instinctively.
Brett Golliff echoed this from his automotive days, recalling how CAD and milling were essential, but cars only gained character when clay sculptors reshaped them by hand.
Without that human flair, it all just looked stiff.
This shared insight carried across the panel: true design often lies in intentional imperfection, in letting small human variations breathe life into a product.
5️⃣ Standardization is Foundational But Must Leave Room for Specialization
Mark Vickers gave an important window into what this looks like at scale. With VF Corp’s 11 brands using five different PLMs, seven DAMs, 31 design tools, and dozens of different processes, the challenge is staggering. His big push is to streamline these down to common foundations…
…so a designer has everything they need come to them, and then they can just focus on being creative.
But he also stressed that for truly specialized craft work, they don’t want to flatten out differences:
A lot of the tools are like a surgeon’s scalpel – very specialized. And we still need that. It’s about balance.
6️⃣ AI Should Augment Human Intuition, Not Override It
The conversation around AI was one of cautious optimism. Onur urged the audience to remember just how multi-sensory humans are: we understand shape not only through sight, but through touch, pressure, and even subtle temperature shifts. AI can’t replicate that.
We’re sensory creatures. We reduce so much when we digitize.
Brett added a dose of humility, describing how teaching his students to work with AI highlighted their own communication gaps:
You’re only as good as how well you can instruct it. The first time I used it, I realized I wasn’t nearly as clear as I thought.
Used wisely, AI can and should accelerate decision-making and reduce bad iterations, but it shouldn’t replace the deeper intuition built through years of craft.
7️⃣ Rethink Workflows to Be Truly Collaborative and Iterative
James painted a compelling picture of what future workflows could look like, especially drawing on his work at HILOS. It’s not about building a single prescriptive tool, he argued, but rather creating an open studio-like environment where designers can experiment freely, integrate new digital tools as needed, and move fluidly between digital and physical iterations.
I want to sketch, prototype, change a last, print it, then go back – without someone in operations saying we have to start over.
This kind of flexible, cyclical process mirrors how human creativity actually works and ensures we’re not just making more stuff, but making better, more thoughtful products.
8️⃣ Build Better, Not Just Faster (Or at the Planet’s Expense)
The panel pushed back on the industry’s obsession with speed to market.
We don’t need to just go faster. We need to make less crap.
AI and generative tools can indeed compress timelines by helping teams make better decisions sooner, but Onur cautioned against mindless acceleration. He raised the overlooked cost of AI’s massive server farms:
Every time you open a prompt, you’re consuming water and energy on a scale we’re only beginning to grasp.
Thoughtful innovation means building quality over quantity – and doing so with both people and the planet in mind.
Conclusion
What emerged from this rich discussion is a roadmap that’s as philosophical as it is practical. The future of footwear doesn’t lie in abandoning the past for shiny new tech, nor in clinging stubbornly to tradition. It lies in fusing them; respecting the tactile, imperfect, deeply human side of making while harnessing digital tools that honor and extend our creative instincts.
As the industry races ahead with AI and 3D, it’s worth pausing to ask: are we using these tools to create more meaning, more quality, and more beauty? Or just more?
Missed this year’s event?! Worry not; Stride USA will be returning to Portland in March 2026. Register your interest now.
