THE CHALLENGE: ‘Digitization’ is what every brand is reaching for because it increases speed to market, reduces costs, optimizes creativity and profit while increasing sustainability—yet lack of knowledge and real step-by-step examples and best practices on digital design, development and manufacturing is hindering our industry’s true digital transformation.

In recent years, FDRA and The Footwearists have successfully collaborated on organizing international conferences for footwear design, development, and innovation. Yet these events and our conversations with nearly every major brand made it crystal clear that one subject urgently needs more in-depth education: the digital transformation of the entire footwear supply chain. Whether companies are just at the beginning of this process or already have experience, EVERYONE struggles with how to structure their digital workflow most effectively. Companies who are just starting out struggle with what part of their product cycle they want to transform—Design? Development? 3D Prototyping?—and what software will fit their needs in addition to restructuring workflows around this. With limited budgets and time, it’s important to get this right! Companies who have already started their transformation also struggle with reorganization of workflow, and find they are often lacking people with the right digital skills to make it happen. We realized that costly events where software suppliers simply show their latest developments, often not fully focused on footwear, leave the audience overwhelmed and confused as to how they actually apply what they learn to their specific situation. Footwear designers and development teams also lack critical training on 3D software platforms and other tools. Targeted training is vital to helping them use these tools effectively and creatively.