Flexible FootwearImagine support shoes without supports, shanks, elevated heels, h

eel counters, or toe boxes! Such things really shoes?

U9718046 邱于珊U9718048 廖玉紅U9718051 張毓文

That was part of the challenge when designers set out to

turn Jerry Gumbert's concept of footwear into reality.

In addition to creating a superior product, the designers 較好的had to unlearn everything they knew about shoe construction. 忘掉 構造

Gumbert, president of Flexible Footwear Technologies Ltd.,

had a vision of footwear that works with the human body. 遠見

He researched foot anatomy and shoes for years before 分析concluding that he could develop something better and asked 決定；斷定Design Central for help.

The goal: to reinvent what we think of as shoes. Designers 重複發明；獨立創造began by ignoring traditional shoemaking methods,nearly 不理會unchanged since the Industrial Revolution. Instead, they

delved into Gumbert's research notes. 鑽研

The designers did not realize, at first, that they were about to

revolutionize footwear. 徹底改革

They quickly discovered that shoes don't need their usual

components to protect feet, absorb shock, and accommodate 成分the elements. In fact, they found that these components 要素could actually contribute to the foot ailments the shoewearing 病痛population complains about.

容納

With the learning and unlearning process complete, the

designers jumped into the conceptualization phase, 概念化hand-sketching various takes on flexible footwear and rejecting 抵制more than five hundred versions. 版本

They worked closely with vendors to create components and

find flexible materials capable of absorbing shock and guarding 防範against the elements.

Next, they built three-dimensional models using a variety of 尺寸的materials over a last, the form on which shoes are built. 形狀

The result is a shoe that is flexible enough to wring out, literally. The old way of thinking is gone. Traditional shoes have an arch support, a rigid member that prevents the foot from flexing and expanding.

literally (adv.) 逐字地 ; 照字面上地 ; 不誇張地 arch (n.) 腳弓 ; 拱門 ; 弓型 rigid (a.) 剛硬的 ; 堅硬的 flex (v.) 彎曲 expand (v.) 擴大

If a foot doesn't expand, the shoe doesn't have to move and expand with it. Without the arch support in traditional shoes, your toes would run into the end of your shoes.

Gumbert and Design Central based Flexible Footwear on how people walk barefoot on sand, where the foot naturally flexes and expands. They built the shoe to accommodate the foot's four arches, allowing for unlimited flexibility.

barefoot (a.) 赤腳的 accommodate (v.) 適應 unlimited (a.) 無限的 ; 不受限制的 flexibility (n.) 柔韌性 ; 機動性 ; 靈活性

In fact, Flexible Footwear shoes allow a full range of motion and are designed to fit a foot like a glove or a sock, providing movement in every direction.

fit (v.) 適合 ; 配合

Their tread pattern reflects the anatomy of a foot- bigger bones (treads) are located in the heel and smaller, more numerous bones in the front. The heel is designed in a neutral position. The shoes promote what designers call a barefoot gait.

tread (n.) 踏 ; 步態 ; 鞋底 pattern (n.) 圖案 anatomy (n.) 結構 neutral (a.) 中立的 gait (n.) 步態 ; 步法

Throughout most of the design process, few computer tools available to the designers allowed the creation of free-form, undulating shapes.

available (a.) 可用的 undulate (a.) 波動的 ; 起伏的

"The shoe was complex, and some of the early computer tools had limitations that wouldn't allow us to do everything we needed," says Timothy A. Friar, vice president of Design Central.

limitation (n.) 限制 vice president 副總經理

When the team was ready to turn the prototype into a mass － producible product, computers were finally integrated into the process. Friar estimates that the project was completed half by hand and half on the computer.

prototype (n.) 原型 mass (a.) 大規模的 producible (a.) 可生產的 integrate (v.) 綜合 ; 使結合 (a.) 完整的

If the project were started today, he thinks they'd probably still do a lot of the work by hand because the shoe's organic shape would be tough to achieve on the computer.

organic (a.) 有機的 tough (a.) 棘手的 ; 困難的

Once they arrived at the computer stage, however, it proved an enormous time-saver; designers generated as many as forty shoe sizes from one part using a proprietary process created by Design Central that takes into account that foot dimensions do not change proportionally.

enormous (a.) 巨大的 ; 龐大的 generate (v.) 產生 proprietary (a.) 所有的 ; 所有權的 dimension (n.) 尺寸 proportionally 成比例地

Next, Design Central went to its vendors to create the tooling which involved a learningcurve. The initial rollout went to small retailers, then podiatrists, chiropractors, and apothecaries. "We took the product to market in a small way, and we're having it grow from there, " says Friar.

tooling 壓模型Learning curve 學習曲線rollout 首次展示

Retailer 零售商 ( 店 ) Podiatrist 足科醫生Chiropractor 脊椎按摩師Apothecary 藥劑師 / 藥材商

Market reaction has been positive, especially among consumers seeking comfortable footwear that is body-conscious and earth-friendly.Friar credits the successful design to Gumbert's philosophy of holistic integration. "Everything is connected to everything," says Friar. "Change one material here, and it affectssomething else."

positive 正面積極的 negative 負面消極的credit ~ to 歸因於 ~philosophy 哲學

holistic 全部的integration 整合 / 集成material 材料

As for the firm's partnership with Gumbert, Friar adds, "We've become a conduit for the concepts of a visionary. Jerry is singularly devoted to this product and this concept. He's not looking for a payoff but tomake a difference to humankind, which is phenomenal.He has an expanding energy bubble around this concept.We use our professionalism without mandating orimposing style or fashion. If we were to do that, we'd ruin the product.

conduit 導線visionary 富想像力的singularly 異常的payoff 決定性的 / 高潮的時刻 / 發薪

phenomenal 現象的bubble 氣泡的 / 靠不住的計畫mandate 命令 imposing 給人印象深刻的

Designers constructed the shoe based on the foot's four arches, each of which needs to' beaccommodated. However, they rejected the rigid arch support found in traditional shoes. Instead,they built a shoe with four nonrigid arch supports that allow for unlimited flexibility.

arch 架構 / 結構accommodate 調和 rigid 堅硬的 / 陽剛的 nonrigid 非陽剛性的

The heel is not raised; it is designedin a neutral position, as if standing barefoot. The idea is for the design to promote a natural gait-what designers call a barefoot gait.

neutral 中立的 barefoot 赤腳gait 步伐 / 腳步

The shoes' treads pattern features larger treads at the back of the foot and smaller patterns at the front. This reflects theanatomy of a foot-bigger bones are located in the heel, where there is less motion than at the front, where bones are smaller and more numerous.

treads 步行anatomy 骨隨motion 動作 / 走 擺動