Technology & Innovation - Aliveshoes PDF

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Disruptive Innovation...

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ALIVESHOES

Aliveshoes is an online platform that gives anyone the power to design, create and sell shoes worldwide. Swiftly and at a low cost.

Disruptive innovation in the footwear industry

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Disruptive Innovation Aliveshoes

! 1 PREVIOUS ENVIRONMENT OF FOOTWEAR INDUSTRY

Entry to the footwear manufacturing industry is typically a laborious process consisting of raw materials selections, treatment of raw material fabrics, footwear structure, footwear assembly as well as and packaging of the finished product.

Figure 1. Typical footwear manufacturing industry (Kyllo, & Jiang, 2014). Traditionally, the creation of footwear was considered an artisanal craftsmanship, a handicraft that could only be produced in limited quantities due to the time-consuming manufacturing process made by hand, spanning over 15 different techniques of making (Boër, Dulio, &

! ! Jovane, 2004). Most traditional shoemakers would measure the feet and cut out size of required upper leathers accordingly and were fitted and stitched together. The sole was next assembled, consisting of a pair of inner soles of soft leather, a pair of outer soles of firmer texture, a pair of welts or bands about one inch broad, of flexible leather, and lifts and toppieces for the heels. The final procedure of “lasting” secures the leather upper to the sole with tacks. The finishing included paring, rasping, scraping, smoothing, blacking, and burnishing the edges of soles and heels, scraping, sand-papering, and burnishing the soles, withdrawing the lasts, and cleaning out any pegs which may have pierced through the inner soles. During the last 40 years, with the widespread adoption of information and communication technologies, computers and process automation, progress was certainly made and shoemaking did in fact modernize, particularly in terms of quality of the manufactured products, flexibility of production, level of control on the various processes, consistency and constancy of the quality of the delivered products and so on. Hence, shoemaking evolved from a craftsman activity into an industrial one, with larger numbers of workers were needed to produce the higher quantities of shoes that the industrial production space. Now, following industrial revolution and technological advances, this traditional shoemaking is now superseded by the commercialized mass production of footwear with higher volume output but may be compromising on quality of craftsmanship or attention to details. Thereafter, the footwear industry evolved rapidly over the last 10 years

! ! with yet another shift from mass production to mass customization (Goonetilleke, 2013).

Figure 2. Shift from mass production to mass customization (Goonetilleke, 2013).

! ! The concept of mass customization has become increasingly relevant and prevalent as customers require an elevated variety of product choice while maintaining the selling-price to be favorable to them. Thus, manufacturers had to develop technologies and systems to deliver goods and services that meet individual customers’ need for express their individuality through degree of customization with low or even no price premiums charged.

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2 WHAT IS THE NEW OFFERING? !!

In recent years, potential within the high-quality footwear market sector with a high potential that has been growing (Zangiacomi, et al., 2004). Although the primary goal of footwear was to protect the feet, with user wearing comfort also one of the biggest current concerns taken into account during shoe design and the material selection, increasingly, the aesthetic component is also gaining priority and importance in customers purchase intentions (Coasta et al, 2008). These concerns manifest in a more curated search for shoe designers and selection of materials used in shoe manufacturing – with price being also another main factor that must be moderated whilst addressing all these concerns (Coasta et al, 2008). Aliveshoes’ unique platform offering serves to disrupt the age-old shoe industry removing the barriers of entry to the shoe development process, and making it controllable and accessible to the general population. Created by Founders Luca Botticelli, Marco Ferroni, Michele Torresi, Patrick Zeeuw, in 2011, backed with Luca’s more than 8 years’ experience in the shoe business and over 5 years of experience in digital product development, AliveShoes lets lets anyone design, buy and sell their own footwear online with their proprietary platform which offers professional design and customization tools to create a bespoke shoes supported by a robust e-commerce platform which helps to distribute the shoes with additional zero costs. They understand that the having access to product development facilities, material procurement, and logistics distribution networks

! ! requires significant amount of capital, time and an advanced proficiency in the industry-relevant skillsets. As such, their platform allows any regular consumer to either kickstart their own shoe line or design their own personal shoe (Appendix A) while being the backing behind the procurement-logistics-manufacturing supply chain of premium leather materials, and promising true Italian craftsmanship (Appendix B) They also provide marketing and design tools to assist any new takers to the platform (Appendix C) where users can design your shoes in every detail, fully customize their online shop, sell their own designer footwear online, and start selling and earning money with a minimum order of 3 shoes to enter production phase. Their platform is connected to their connected shoe manufacturing network based in in Le Marche, Italy (also known as "the Italian shoe valley") that promises to produce and ship to customers in less than 4 weeks. The limitation is that one needs to be a premium member, signed up at $99 to access premium designs and styles of footwear as shown in (Appendix D – Chloe Kay, King George, Straits Settlement samples).

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References

Boër, C. R., Dulio, S., & Jovane, F. (2004). Editorial: Shoe design and manufacturing.

International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing , 17(7), 577–582. https://doi.org/10.1080/09511920412331292637

Boër, C. R., & Dulio, S. (2007). Mass Customization and Footwear: Myth, Salvation or Reality? A Comprehensive Analysis of the Adoption of the Mass Customization Paradigm in Footwear, from the Perspective of the EUROShoE Research Project

Costa, A. B; Deberofski, A. S.; & Spricigo G. (2008). Work Organizational Charges in the Vale De Sinos’ Footwear Industry. J ABET, 2(2): 1–22.

Goonetilleke, R. (Ed.). (2013). The Science of Footwear. Boca Raton: CRC Press, https://doi.org/10.1201/b13021

Kyllo, K & Jiang, J. (2014, June). Hazardous Chemicals in Footwear Manufacturing.

Consumer Compact. https://www.sgs.com/en/news/2014/06/hazardous chemicals-in-footwear-manufacturing

Zangiacomi, A., Zhijian, L., Sacco, M., & Boër, C. R. (2004). Process planning and scheduling for mass customised shoe manufacturing. International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 17(7), 613–621. https://doi.org/10.1080/0951192042000273177

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Appendix A

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Appendix B

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Appendix C !

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Appendix D!

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