FITFLOP

FITFLOP entered the scene in 2007. Back then it was generally accepted that a shoe could not look good and feel great, especially after hours of wearing. The brand responded with a sandal that combined style with world-class science – and continued to dream, innovate, and defy conventions. The mission is to raise the energy of the world and help you live life to the fullest by creating wellness products engineered to work with your body, so you move better and feel great.

Every FitFlop product is biomechanically engineered – which means it’s designed to complement your body structure, joint alignment and natural movement.

Feel and perform your best, every day. The brand apply the research, cutting-edge science, and testing, usually reserved for sports performance shoes, across our whole range. Because why wouldn’t you want to feel and perform your best, everywhere and every day?

Ballet flats, beach flip-flops, platforms, wellies… FITFLOP believes almost any style can be re-engineered to be easier on your body and ultra-comfortable underfoot.

Brief:

Refresh the existing ranges and create new segments, all updated to latest fashion trends
Role:

Product Designer
Target market:

Fitflop customer across the glob

CONTEXT:

Fitflop has always been a game changer, bringing biomechanically engineered sandals to thousands of comfort-seeking women and men around the world.

As a part of the design team, my mission was to create ranges of sandals, sneakers, loafers and skate shoes that people can live in, not just because they look good, but because they feel good! It then evolved: a competitive and market analysis all year long, a constant hunt for new trends, colors, key silhouettes and materials. Each main collection (SS/FW) is split into three parts with its own “story”:

the transition collection (link between previous and current collection),
the main collection
another small final collection incorporating trends that have been overlooked in the main collection, for example.

With the Design and the Material Team, each collection started with a one-week kick-off meeting.

PROCESS:

With the full design team we were going through series of 3 Agile sprints starting by:

A meeting with a trend Agency : Perclers Paris to be updated with the latest fashion, colours, material and social stories and trends.
An Inspiration / shopping trip with the full product team.

Based on this, we organised a Creative kick off week. A one week focus group with the product team where we had to come ready with all our personal research, on all type of trends (colour, material, finishing, social, shapes), feedback from the sales team, personas of previous and potential new customers .

By the end of the week, the goal was to have shared all those information and have defined:

- A clear structure line in terms of key shapes, new items and flow overs

- 4 cohesive strong stories for the full collection including all the different lines

- A strong colour palette

- A clear vision of all the materials (already used, brand new and potentials needed) to be ordered

- Some strong guidelines based on the new collection story for communication team to start building the campaign

We the moved to :

- A presentation to the line managers which will validate these choices based on sales

- A presentation to the owner, who will add her “season must-haves” to the list.

- The kickoff for the creative phase , starting with Sketching for new products (upper & mid soles)

— Some examples of the seasonal moodboards i participated creating —

here are some of the Seasonal moodboards a participate creating.

— Some Personas i created for different markets we had to cover —

— Some sketching exemples that we had to produce for refresh or creation phase —

- A review with line manager, creation of the tech pack and mockup, which once validated will be sent to Asia for a first prototype to be built (in simple black leather).

- Once the first prototype has been received, analysis of the product, modifications of the patronage and testing of material and textures.

- A review with line manager, creation of the tech pack and mockup, which once validated will be sent to Asia for a second prototype to be built in the chosen material.

- Once the 2nd prototype has been received, analysis of the prototype to correct potential mistakes, modifications of the patronage and choice of colors. At this point, all the SKUs are validated.

- Review with line manager, creation of the tech pack and mockup for every single product of the collection, to be sent to Asia for prototypes to be made.