Speakers’ Corner gives you a preview of the voices you’ll hear at upcoming PI events, straight from the people shaping fashion and footwear.
In this edition, Tom Evans, Senior Manager of Innovation at Dr. Martens, makes the case for slowing down before you speed up. From why the industry's shared toolkit is quietly killing differentiation, to why a biro still beats a render when it matters most.
Whatʼs the biggest shift youʼve seen in footwear design or development over the past year?
The sea of sameness. Same digital tools, same materials, same production techniques. If everyone is using the same big foamy soles driven by the same suppliers, the same regurgitating generative tools and the same form limiting 3D design tools, where’s the point of difference?
Whatʼs the most underrated capability or mindset teams need to build today?
Sketching, reading sketches, working collaboratively with a culture of direct feedback. The ability to communicate ideas effectivity quickly, before investing time in any worked up digital imagery, allows better decision making early. A culture of feedback is essential to keep designs on-point in tight timelines.
If you could wave a magic wand and fix one industry bottleneck, what would it be?
Speed of making real samples. You don’t know you can make it until you start trying to make it. Designers in factories make the biggest leaps in progress.
What does great collaboration between design, development, and manufacturing look like to you?
An open mind. Friction and respect. We don’t need to know the solution at the start, but we do need to know we’re there for a common purpose so we have the energy to find it.
Whatʼs overhyped right now in the footwear innovation space?
AI. AI is overhyped in every corner of life. It's great in the right hands for the right things, but it’s a crock of mediocrity without human taste levels.
Whatʼs one piece of advice youʼd give to a brand trying to modernize its development pipeline?
Minimise handovers. Have creative intent followed through from brief to wearers by the same good people. The longer and more complicated a product’s development is, the more likely it is to become diluted and lose meaning as it passes from team to team. Set clear direction and make sure everyone gets the why.
Tool you couldnʼt live without?
A biro. I think on paper. Ideate roughly and rapidly. Fail fast, fail cheap. Drawing is a learnable skill. Do it every day.
Tom will be joining us at Stride Europe, taking place 28-29th April in Venice, where he'll be leading an interactive, deep dive session on, 'Innovation Inside an Icon: Balancing Craft, Digital Tools & Sustainability'.
