How did we get a shoe made for worldie with no footwear experience and no contacts in the industry? I get questions about that process a lot. The simple answer is LinkedIn.
It takes a while to explain the process in depth so I’m going to do so over multiple posts. Part 1 will focus on how we found a designer. This took us almost a year and was by far the hardest part - mainly because we were just starting out and had literally no existing contacts in the space.
Early days - pay per hour sites
When we were first starting out we were explaining our idea to a lot of people. We tried to do our best to explain our vision, but others found it hard to conceptualize. So we approached cheap “designers” on freelance websites like Fiverr. We knew that these initial designs wouldn’t be something that we ever sent to a factory to get our shoe made, but they gave us something tangible to show people. We paid $5 for our very first “design” - which was an extremely low fidelity 2D sketch based on an existing soccer cleat.
The world’s smallest shoe prototype
As we solidified our idea and business plan, we knew that we needed a more detailed design. We knew that a factory wouldn’t be able to work with a simple 2D design, but we still thought that we could get our design done relatively cheaply. We got a few more designs made by designers on Fiverr - but we spent more money this time and focused on 3D designs. We even got a design in a 3D printable file that we planned to print at the Polsky Exchange Fabrication Lab - an on-campus 3D printing lab.
We were super excited to be able to print our very first prototype. We sent the file over to the Fab Lab and patiently waited to hear that our prototype was complete. However, we quickly learned that there were significant issues with the file that prevented it from being printed. And the shoe was designed to only be about 1 inch by 1 inch!
We were frustrated, but we knew that we likely needed to find a footwear design expert.
Realizing we need to invest to take our design to the next level
We scheduled as many informational interviews as we could during the first year or so of our venture. We found it was especially helpful to speak with people who had overseen the launch of a new shoe within a large existing business. They were easy to find on LinkedIn and were generally open to speaking to us. They were well-connected, they understood the business of footwear and they knew what it took to get a new shoe to market.
We learned quickly that we were being too scrappy in our designer search. We heard that our idea required a fairly technical designer and that footwear design is not cheap. We still had a very small footwear network at the time, but we asked everyone we knew if they had any leads on designers.
The serendipitous LinkedIn connection that led us to our designer
In early 2022, I reached out to someone (cold) on LinkedIn who had overseen the launch of a new sustainable shoe at a large athletic shoe brand. During our call with her, we described our idea and asked for guidance on finding a designer. She offered to connect us with one of the best designers she knew who just so happened to be taking on projects like ours. She mentioned that he had overseen the design of iconic shoes like the Reebok ZigTech and Adidas Springblade, so we knew we needed to reach out.
The rest is history...
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