Ergonomics in footwear and leather goods design

The principles used in the design of various styles of footwear and leather goods for the correct anatomic and ergonomic proportions and measurements.

ergonomics in leatherwear and footwear design
technics of leatherwear and footwear design
functionality, ergonomics and comfort in leather goods and footwear design
leatherwear and footwear ergonomic design
technics of leather goods and footwear design
leather goods and footwear ergonomic design
functionality, ergonomics and comfort in leatherware and footwear design

knowledge

sector-specific

Ergonomics in footwear and leather goods design is an essential knowledge of the following occupations:

Footwear designer: Footwear designers perform fashion trends analysis, forecasting and market research, create footwear concepts and build collection lines by operating mood or concept boards, colour palettes, materials, drawings and sketches etc. They conduct the sampling process, make footwear prototypes and samples for presentations aimed to promoting the footwear concepts and collections. They identify the range of materials and components, define the design specifications by collaborating with the technical team and review the footwear samples, prototypes, and collections.
Footwear product developer: Footwear product developers provide interface between design and production. They engineer the footwear prototypes previously created by designers. They select, design or re-design lasts and footwear components, make patterns for uppers, linings and bottom components, and produce technical drawings for a various range of tools (e.g. cutting dies, mould, etc.). They also produce and evaluate footwear prototypes, grade and produce sizing samples, perform required tests for samples and confirm the customer’s qualitative and pricing constraints.
Orthopaedic footwear technician: Orthopaedic footwear technicians design footwear and make patterns, using manufacturing technology. They compensate and accommodate foot and ankle fitting problems, design and manufacture footwear and its orthopaedic components, including orthoses, insoles, soles and others.
Footwear production machine operator: Footwear production machine operators tend specific machines in the industrial production of footwear. They operate machinery for lasting, cutting, closing, and finishing footwear products. They also perform routine maintenance of the machinery.
Leather goods machine operator: Leather goods machine operators tend specific machines in the industrial production of leather goods products. They operate machinery for cutting, closing, and finishing luggage, handbags, saddlery and harness products. They also perform routine maintenance of the machinery.
Leather goods designer: Leather goods designers are in charge of the creative process of leather goods. They perform fashion trends analysis, accompany market researches and forecast needs, plan and develop collections, create concepts and build the collection lines. They additionally conduct the sampling, create prototypes or samples for presentation and promote concepts and collections. During the collection development, they define the mood and the concept board, the colour palettes, the materials, produce drawings and sketches. Leather goods designers identify the range of materials and components and define the design specifications. They collaborate with the technical team.
Leather goods product developer: Leather goods product developers perform and interface between design and actual production. They analyse and study designer’s specifications and transform them into technical requirements, updating concepts to manufacturing lines, selecting or even designing components and selecting materials. Leather goods product developers also perform the pattern engineering meaning to make patterns manually, produce technical drawings for various range of tools, specially cutting. They evaluate prototypes, performing required tests for samples and confirming the customer’s quality requirements and pricing constrains.

Ergonomics in footwear and leather goods design is optional for these occupations. This means knowing this knowledge may be an asset for career advancement if you are in one of these occupations.

Leather goods CAD patternmaker: Leather goods CAD patternmakers design, adjust and modify 2D patterns using CAD systems. They check laying variants using nesting modules of the CAD system. They estimate material consumption.
Footwear CAD patternmaker: Footwear CAD patternmakers design, adjust and modify patterns for all kinds of footwear using CAD systems. They check laying variants using nesting modules of the CAD system and material consumption. Once the sample model has been approved for production, these professionals make series of patterns (grading) to produce a range of the same footwear model in different sizes.
Leather goods patternmaker: Leather goods patternmakers design and cut patterns for various kinds of leather goods using a variety of hand and simple machine tools. They check nesting variants and estimate material consumption.
Footwear patternmaker: Footwear patternmakers design and cut patterns for all kinds of footwear using a variety of hand and simple machine tools. They check various nesting variants and perform material consumption estimation. Once the sample model has been approved for production, they produce series of patterns for range of footwear in different sizes.
Leather goods product development manager: Leather goods product development managers coordinate the leather goods design and product development process in order to comply with marketing specifications, deadlines, strategic requirements and policies of the company. They communicate and collaborate with other cross functional teams or professionals involved in leather goods production, such as logistics and marketing, costing, planning, production and quality assurance. They are responsible for the leather goods product collections development which involve activities such as tracking style development, reviewing design specification in order to meet the design vision, the manufacturing environment, and the rent-ability of the companies.
Footwear product development manager: Footwear product development managers coordinate the footwear design and the product and collection development process in order to comply with design specifications, deadlines, strategic requirements and policies of the company. They track style development and review design specification in order to meet the design vision, the manufacturing environment, and the company’s financial goals.

References

1. Ergonomics in footwear and leather goods design – ESCO