Practice innovative thinking in the footwear and leather goods industries

Innovate and create in the footwear and leather goods sector. Evaluate new ideas and concepts to turn them into marketable products. Use entrepreneurial thinking in all stages of the product and process development to identify new business opportunities for the targeted markets.

practice creative thinking in the footwear and leather goods industries
apply innovative thinking in the footwear and leather goods industries
apply innovative thinking in the footwear and leather industry
apply creative thinking in the footwear and leather goods industries
practice innovative thinking in the leather goods industry
practice innovative thinking in the footwear industry
practice innovative thinking in the footwear and leather industries
apply creative thinking in the footwear and leather industry

skill/competence

cross-sector

Practice innovative thinking in the footwear and leather goods industries is an essential skill of the following occupations:

Footwear quality manager: Footwear quality managers implement, manage and promote the quality systems in the company, using adequate tools and methodologies based on national, international or company standards. They are in charge of establishing requirements and objectives, as well as preparing documents. They analyse complaints, and promote and coordinate corrective and preventive measures. They promote an effective internal and external communication and ensure the consumer’s demands are met. They are responsible for the definition of instruments which monitor and control of the quality systems, namely internal or external auditing, and they participate in the internal auditing.
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.
Bespoke footwear technician: Bespoke footwear technicians perform activities in small production environments (e.g. workshops) where footwear is typically custom-made. They design, prepare, cut and sew, assemble and finish custom made footwear.
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.
Leather goods quality manager: Leather goods quality managers manage and promote the systems of quality assurance implemented in the organisations. They carry out the tasks in order to achieve predefined requirements and objectives, fostering the internal and external communication, while aiming for the continuous improvement and the customer satisfaction.
Footwear production manager: Footwear production managers plan, distribute, and coordinate all necessary activities of the different footwear manufacturing phases ensuring the adherence to quality standards and production and productivity pre-defined goals.
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 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.
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.
Leather goods production manager: Leather goods production managers perform a wide range of activities and tasks in the field of management, namely, they plan, distribute and coordinate all necessary activities of the different leather goods manufacturing phases envisaging the accomplishment of the quality standards and production and productivity pre-defined goals.
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.

Practice innovative thinking in the footwear and leather goods industries is optional for these occupations. This means knowing this skill may be an asset for career advancement if you are in one of these occupations.

Leather goods production supervisor: Leather goods production supervisors monitor and coordinate day-to-day production activities of a leather goods manufacturing plant. They oversee quality control as well as manage the leather goods production staff. The work also involves organising the work flow as well as taking care of production plan and costs.
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 quality control laboratory technician: Leather goods quality control laboratory technicians perform laboratory control tests according to the national and international standards. During laboratory control tests they prepare samples, address test procedures, analysis and interpretation of the results and comparison with guidelines and standards and prepare reports. They make the linkage with outsourced laboratories for the tests which cannot be performed inside the company. They propose corrective and preventive measures.
Footwear production technician: Footwear production technicians perform a wide range of activities regarding footwear manufacturing. They are involved in all phases of the process including product engineering and different types of construction. They aim at maximising productivity and reducing production costs, assuring the functionality and quality of product and customer satisfaction.
Leather goods quality technician: Leather goods quality technicians perform tasks related to the quality system, by controlling quality, executing laboratory tests (finished products, used materials and components) according to the national and international standards. They analyse and interpret the result of the laboratory tests, prepare reports, advise on corrective and preventive measures, contributing for the accomplishment of requirements and objectives in the with the aim of continuous improving and the customer satisfaction.
Footwear quality technician: Footwear quality technicians manage all the standards and techniques related to processes and products. They perform tasks using quality systems based on national and international standards. They analyse and interpret the results, prepare reports, advise on corrective measures, contribute to the achievement of requirements and objectives for the benefit of continuous improvement and customer satisfaction.
Leather goods industrial engineer: Leather goods industrial engineers analyse product technical specifications, define productive operations and its sequence, refine working methods, calculate operative times by using time measurement techniques. They address human and technological resources to each operation and define distribution of work according to production capacity. All their activities and tasks have the objective of maximising productivity and reducing production costs, assuring the functionality and quality of product and customer satisfaction.
Leather goods manufacturing technician: Leather goods manufacturing technicians perform a wide range of activities and tasks related to the leather goods manufacturing process including cutting, closing and finishing, according to pre-defined quality criteria, resulted from the direct relationship with the costumer. They use manual techniques supported by simple traditional equipment to produce exclusive models or very small orders.
Footwear production supervisor: Footwear production supervisors monitor and coordinate day-to-day production activities of a footwear manufacturing plant. They oversee quality control to ensure that the end product is in alignment with production specifications, and manage the footwear staff. The work also involves negotiations with suppliers as well as taking care of the production plan and production costs.
Leather goods maintenance technician: Leather goods maintenance technicians programme and tune different types of cutting, stitching, finishing and specific equipment related to leather goods manufacturing. They take care of the preventive and corrective maintenance of the various equipment by periodically verifying their working conditions and performance, analysing faults, correcting problems, repairing and substitutes components and performing routine lubrications. They provide information on the usage of equipment and its energetic consumption to decision makers inside the company.
Shoemaker: Shoemakers use hand or machine operations for traditional manufacturing of a various range of footwear. They also repair all types of footwear in a repair shop.

References

1. Practice innovative thinking in the footwear and leather goods industries – ESCO