KNITTED COLOURS by Noa Zaidman
This modular recyclable knitted shoe prototype was created in response to the catastrophic waste created by the footwear industry. Currently, 24.2 billion pairs of shoes are manufactured globally each year, and most end up in landfills or incinerators. One of the reasons is that most shoes are made of many different materials that can't be separated, and therefore can't be recycled.
This project proposes an alternative to this issue- the shoes are made from 2 parts; a mono-material 3D printed flexible sole and a knitted upper knitted entirely out of elastic yarn. The shoes attach to the sole by pulling the elastic cords to the hooks on the sole. The modularity of the shoe allows the options of washing the upper if needed, replacing a worn-out piece, recycling the sole or the upper, or playing around with different uppers or soles for different looks. The upper attaches to the sole by pulling on the elastic cords to the hooks of the sole. It is knitted manually on a double-bed domestic knitting machine using three ends of elastic yarn, making it durable and flexible. The cords are knitted from the same elastic yarn which is also used to link the different pattern pieces, making the module easy to recycle. Meanwhile, the mono-material sole is 3D printed entirely from a TPU flexible filament. Made without any adhesives, the components are very easy to attach, wear, and take off.
COMPOSITION: Sole: TPU / Upper: Polyamide covered lycra