Future Sole 2011 Design Competition Finalists
August 30th, 2011 by John K. | 28 comments
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The world’s greatest minds in footwear design seem to gather at Beaverton, OR quite often. This past week, the finalists for the Future Sole 2011 Design Contest convened at the famed Nike campus, where the remaining few unveiled their designs for the specific assignments laid out by the Future Sole Program. The assignments included: a new NY-inspired Jordan Melo footwear design, a Jordan Melo t-shirt, a signature Converse shoe for J.J. Barea, and a Nike Basketball sneaker for a power forward. The highlight of the event was, without a doubt, the Jordan Melo M8 design finalists, submitted by Nick Daiber of Highland, IL and Jacob Rochester of Bloomfield, CT; the judges themselves were stumped, as they could not declare one individual design the clear winner, so Carmelo Anthony himself laid down the iron fist and had to make the ultimate selection, which was Nick Daiber’s Blue/Orange rendition. Check out the finalists below and let us know which Jordan Melo M8 Future Sole design you like best!
I like the shoes and ...new look for the young kids.
I know these kids really have way better designs in mind for the what they want to create without the regulation of JB
The flywire is not functional at all. Would also not get through the North American Merchandising team. I smell blow-up. Nice try though.....
How come none of these future sole dudes ever look cool. they always look like Nerds of the 3rd kind. Back in the day nobody gave a fuck who designed the shoe as long as it was dope. I think it was better that way cause now I can't wear some of this stuff cause these dudes look like straight L7's.......
I need help. Aj 3's black or pewter foamposite?
Jordan 3's bro
those designs are fresh. respect dat.
You know why the judges couldn't decide which one was better? Because neither were clever or creative NEW ideas- the last time a fresh idea for a sneaker came out of a future sole finalist was Austin J.s melo. Since then they've just been weak copies of existing jordans, that professional jordan designers then refine and make marketable. I don't like the direction future sole is going in, let the kids design their own shoes, don't give them premade templates and force them to use a preexisting sole, it really takes away from the whole design process.
Just guessing, but they most likely give em premade templates/soles because the templates are proven "winners" from a functional standpoint....we aren't talking about a design that's only gonna go on paper, the shoe's gotta work, so letting a kid draw an outsole's a great idea in theory, but since the end product's gonna be something based largely off of looks, it may not work as an actual outsole on a shoe made for performance. Kinda like asking a kid to draw an airplane from scratch. 5 wings looks cool if you can sketch well but probably flies about as well as a can of soda.
exactly
I agree that these shoe designs are nothing spectacular. What did Austin's design bring to the table? I noticed the design was clean, but did I miss some innovation? All of Nike design has been lacking real innovation the past few years.
Them blue ones are nice.
Really feelin the second blue/red sneaker, toungue is crazy i can already see the flywire and maybe a visible air unit at the heel
seems fun to design. too bad i cant sketch
May be one of them could be the next Tinker
these kids making better stuff then jb designers haha
Wow, these show some promise...
Some fresh new shoe designs by young engineers. Inspiring!
Engineers? Engineers don't design shoes, industrial designers design shoes.
he was using the word engineer in the general sense. not the specific vocation.
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical and practical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality, safety and cost.[1][2] The word engineer is derived from the Latin root ingenerare, meaning "to create".[3] And there we have it. Also, with your doctor example Dominic, you are again taking a singular word and applying the entire field of its existence into one profession. The term doctor can be given to many professions outside of the healthcare field.
This will get down voted, but whatever. Engineers earn their title by going through years of undergraduate and post-grad education, using mathematics I doubt you could fathom. Considering just anyone an engineer is like considering yourself a doctor because you give yourself tylenol when you have a headache.
so i guess im not an electrical engineer. makes sense.
@DominicD3 People like you always got to make an argument over nothing. To engineer something is to build a machine or structure, and obviously a shoe is a structure. So stop trying to act all A+ Scholar on us.
dude just please stfu
general sense? the general sense is either a mathematical engineer or a train conductor.
Melo M8 looking like the Lebron 8s
I mean the 2nd last pic on the 1st page if you are wondering