DESIGN YOUR OWN HIGH TOP SHOES

Do you have tips about shoe designing? Well, it’s not just about colorful prints and attractive sketches. But it concerns the technical realization seen in its look and functionality. To make any shoe type, you first must think about designing. The entire process takes most individuals especially beginners from creativity itself to shoe making. But can you make a shoe without thinking through its design? Is it possible to make a shoe without having to draw it? Well, this article is here to discuss how to design your own high top shoes without necessarily having sketching or drawing skills. Please keep reading to learn more. 

Stereotypes about shoe making

• Numerous people believe that you must work with a software to design shoes. Unfortunately, such software is very expensive to work with. That means it can be hard to access these programs for shoe designing. It also needs one to be equipped with certain skills to smoothly use the software.
• You need sketching skills to design your own high top shoes. But does it mean that if one makes ugly sketches, they shouldn’t go ahead to the shoemaking art? 
• A footwear course is a must for any shoe designer. It may be right, but what if there’s no footwear course near you.

Shoe software design

We’ve got several shoe designing software on the internet, including ICad3D+ and Shoemaster among others. It’s true they’re great for making shoe designing wonderful. But to be sincere, this things is too costly to be afforded by some common people. Again, suppose you’ve got no plans for making shoes with big brands, it may not work for you. 

Alternative to shoe sketching

Shoe sketching skills don’t just revolve around drawing them, but involves more than you think. You should start by knowing the shoe model’s parameters by paying attention to the foot anatomy to help get not just good looking but comfortable footwear. It’s also relevant to understand the shoe proportions before applying the design on it. In other words, shoe sketching using paperwork is one thing and a completely different thing to convert it from paper to its actual product. If you can’t sketch a shoe, but have an idea in mind, here is a way out for you. 

Free hand pattern method

The free hand pattern method involves shoe designing through pattern building. It’s a great way for easing complex shoe designs and obtaining freedom to getting what you desire. You can also make any footwear design or proceed with your idea quickly. The freehand technique has various advantages over the traditional approaches involving shoe designing and pattern making. They include the following;

• High chances of creating 3D components in shoes.
• Contains simple to learn tools that simplify the entire design process.
• Pattern making or shoe designing with no calculations.

Let’s look at the below example of how to design a boot pattern using paper;

• Get an A4 size paper and cut out a pump last basic pattern, then place on the shoe last. The A4 paper is meaningful since the shoe pattern’s correctness and is also affordable material for a shoe designing process.  
• Mark all the points and lines belong to the construction pump. That includes the back height, joint line, and sideline. A joint line is the longest line passing through the shoe’s widest area. The back height is the region that any shoes’ top line must touch the heel. The sideline mainly links the joint line and the back height.
• Cut the pattern paper’s center line from the front part up to the joint line.
• Seal the top part with a masking tape. Get a masking tape and attach on the shoe’s upper to enable designing the boot’s line. It’s called the shoe pattern reconstruction.
• Eliminate the extra masking tape. Ensure you love the footwear’s look before cutting out the unwanted part of the tape. It’s among the main advantages in this hand free pattern technique. One can see the real look as it’d be at the end. You can also correct mistakes and fix anything that doesn’t seem right.
• Take off the paper pattern of your boot and take it to a cardboard for creating the basic boot pattern. Here, go on with boot making to form the upper and lining patterns by using the earlier patterns you made on paper.

More tips on how to design your own high top shoe

• If you can be lucky to access a software in shoe designing, it’d be best to learn how to use it. You not only major in designing using a pen and paper or the hand free method as mentioned earlier. There’s more to grasp such as Photoshop, and illustrator, among other software programs. You should also be in a position to form pencil sketches on the computer by yourself.
• Create a portfolio by assembling all your desirable shoe designs. The once showing your versatility and skills as a designer. Have an aim of almost 20 models in physical and about 5 for online portfolio. Continue updating and upgrading the portfolio after a short while to keep your content fresh in mind. Don’t forget to follow up on what pro designers used to do in their earlier days of the craft. Explore your inspiration and influences from well-known designers to keep you going.
• Do more sketching or hand free pattern method. Among the best skills a designer can have is being easy to imagine something and putting it down on paper or in practical. The main objective is lack of copying what you can see. But, it’s about envisioning it and sketching. You don’t have to do it on paper, it ca also be great done on the computer. 

The bottom line

To design your own high top shoe doesn’t have to begin with a sketch. There are various ways to forego sketching or shoe designing software and still achieve your goal. An example is the hand free pattern technique that’s cheap and fast to use. However, if you can access a software or have great drawing skills that don’t disappoint, please don’t be limited.