Problem addressed
Different types of clients and users in the footwear sector have completely different requirements, which are finally converted into production criteria. This large amount of different requirements can be grouped into sets of relevant technical and functional criteria. Traditionally, these sets of criteria have not been taken sufficiently into account in production processes, except in orthopaedic and sport footwear. Such requirements cannot be satisfied by the footwear sector: answering to these demands would imply made-to-measure manufacturing with high response times and prohibitive costs. The use of emergent technologies, new methods and new criteria can revolutionise time-to-market and cost of made-to-measure footwear manufacturing.

Different pilot actions

Objectives
Main objective of ERGOSHOE project is to introduce new methods and criteria among users, clients and manufacturers, which lead to production of made-to-measure footwear in effective way and reasonable costs, respecting functionality criteria according to different sorts of users, in particular: children, workers (security footwear), patients requiring special needs, especially related to diabetic foot syndrome, and people in search of functionality and better ergonomic issues. After a preliminary impact and feasibility analysis, four pilot actions will be deployed as test-bed in different countries, with the participation of footwear manufacturers and suppliers (SMEs), clients, specialised groups of users (health, children....), footwear retailers, etc.
Other specific objectives are to:


Digitised foot
  • Produce made-to-measure footwear adapted to particular needs of each individual, with reasonable relative costs.
  • Transfer digitising new technologies to footwear sector in low costs and convenient technical features.
  • Spread and disseminate new methods of production to European dimension.
  • Boost condition of life for footwear users.
    Generate criteria for design of footwear closer to user needs.
  • Respond to collectives' demand in firms which, want to avoid problems in the future related to health of workers, in a concrete field like footwear.

Expected impact
The ERGOSHOE project is the answer to a long-lasting demand of the footwear sector, trying to respond to clear and specific societal needs using new technologies in a traditional sector with a large proportion of SMEs. Firstly, it will improve quality of life in specific users (patients suffering from diabetic foot syndrome) and workers. Secondly, it will answer to the demands of general footwear users willing to improve ergonomic issues or even using new distribution channels like Internet. Thirdly, it will open new market possibilities and increase competitiveness of the footwear sector by introducing a technological innovation, which will radically change supply chain conditions. Exploitation of the results of the project is expected to be in a short term that once client reoquirements are extracted and transformed into criteria, their adaptation to production processes will be immediate.