When I say that detail is an essential component of design, I mean it literally. Typically, elastic bands in shoe design and shoemaking are seen as a basic utilitarian feature that can be connected anywhere in the shoe top for the sole purpose of serving that function. This approach does not sit well with me since I believe that each shoe element has a purpose in supporting the overall design concept.
So how to make a shoe last that will suit the majority of the people? In mass production, they chose some standard measurements for the shoe last that will suit most people's feet. If you want to know more about it I wrote a post about “Foot measurements” in the blog at my online shoemaking school and you are welcome to read it.
Now, as I work also with standard shoe lasts that obviously will not suit every woman's feet, I thought that with the help of my shoe design it could expand the comfort of my shoes and would be comfortable for everyone. So I started to experiment with shoe designing, and I came up with a variety of design ideas that could enlarge the comfort of the footwear.
One of them was to add extra stretching qualities for the footwear. It would make it comfortable to wear such shoes made on a standard shoe last for women with non-standard feet width. So I designed shoes with elastic bends where they are inserted in the shoe design as an integral part of the entire design.
As a result, my elastic bands are the central shoe features around which all shoe components are formed. They are, in my opinion, underutilized in shoe design and are largely seen in the comfort footwear market, where they also serve as a forced element.
I believe that because these elastic bands have such vast elastic possibilities, we may expand our design skills and produce attractive and comfy shoes as well.