Nova Biodegradable Children’s Footwear
Biodegradable children’s footwear made for both planet and child in mind. Nova represents how we can reconsider the environmental impact of products without sacrificing beauty and function.
Key Areas
Market Research, User Research, Prototyping, Animation, Material Exploration, Packaging Design, Service Design
Individual Project
Completed at the Georgia Institute of Technology
Why should we care about what happens to our shoes after we outgrow them?
We create a lot of waste, that sticks around for a while, and we already do care that our brands do something about it.
Driving Trends
Ethnographic Research
Insights pulled from 8 parent interviews and a survey of 157 parents of young children.
Personas
Comparison of motivations of parents and children in the shoe purchasing decision. I found parents to be motivated by fit, comfort, and quality, while children were more concerned with style.
Growing Mycelium
I nurtured a cluster of oyster mushrooms to maturity. Mushrooms are known for their rapid growth, a desirable feature for a plant-based composite. The color breakup of the substrate block inspired the color application I used for the final shoe design.
Development
Results
Material Choice
I chose the shoe materials based on cradle-to-cradle principles. All components of Nova, from the sole, to the upper, and even the grommets are made with biodegradable materials that will break down after disposal.
Will these shoes start to break down before a child grows out of them? Not to worry. They will break down comparably to any other shoe on the market during their lifetime, but these shoes will not start to break down rapidly until exposed to environmental decomposers, such as bacteria, for an extended period of time.
Home Try-On Box
My solution to the limited experience of trying shoes on in-stores is the Nova Home Try-on Box.
