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Vibram Open-sole Project 2024

I worked with the innovation designer and developers within the Vbram Product Creation team to develop an open-sole for court-based sports like tennis, basketball, and pickleball. This project aimed to leverage Vibram's rubber technology, introducing outdoor-grade performance rubber to indoor court sports. Throughout the design journey, I learned about the diverse applications of various rubber compounds. The design process encompassed research, visual experimentation using Vectoraster, and technical illustration, and my favorite part was getting lost and inspired by the huge open-sole collection at Vibram Connection Lab in Boston. 

Inspiration:

Reinvestigating the Vibram Fivefingers design ethos and its heritage visual language. The design looks at the foot anatomy and interprets it through the lug pattern and placement.
























Vibram logo

My initial instinct was to incorporate the distinctive octagon-shaped Vibram logo into the tread pattern of the outsole while keeping in mind that the flex grooves and the thickness of the rubber would impact performance.



















Concept 

The first step in the project involved examining existing designs that incorporate foot anatomy references and understanding the science behind the tread patterns. Following this, I created three thumbnails to delineate various outsole zones and necessary leading edges.














Sketch + VectorRaster


I started off with good old pencil and paper sketching then moved into digital space for more accurate and calculated parametric experimentations in a software called VecterRaster. 



















Adobe Ai ︎︎︎ Discussion

It was a very fun process to discuss the ideas that I built in Adobe illustrator with other designers and invite them to put down their thoughts and feedback directly on the concepts.
















Lateral and Medial 

With attention directed towards refining the outsole design, it's now time to explore the midsole design by sketching and experimenting in Adobe Illustrator.


















Tech-Pack

I focused intently on minimizing the use of rubber to decrease weight without compromising performance. The midsole is set to be made out of Vibram EVA foam.

 









©2023 Jasonliao