Trend Report: AI Footwear

A look into how designers are harnessing AI for innovations in footwear

Trend Report: AI Footwear

The innovations by MEC are explored in regular updates that examine new developments in stitch, yarn, fiber, engineering and technical knowledge for the circular knitting market.

With the advent of A.I. fashion week in April 2023, the role of these design programs in the world of fashion is being put to the test, with the top three winners having their collections manufactured in the real world. Such is the sophistication of the designs it is hard to believe that they are not photographs, as designers hone their skills with A.I. programs such as midjourney.

In this report we take a look at the images and textures that could be used to realize the A.I. generated sneakers should the footwear industry start to look for similar ways to integrate the digital designs with tactile materials.

Started in September 2022, the A.I. designer Macintoysh has already attracted over 16,000 followers with an endless array of sculptural sneakers. The depth of A.I. creativity and designer direction is explored in multitudes of textures, soles, silhouette and trims as each post evolves the designer's vision. While there is a robust discussion on a daily basis on how A.I. design programs can potentially reduce jobs for humans, there are just as many designers eager to dive into the creative tools available with A.I., adding to the designer's artillery of skills along with InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and other design programs

Footwear - Activewear - Sneakers - A.I. Design - 3D Textures-

The soft textures that we explore in the A.I. Texture report features heavily in the A.I generated footwear of Brik.Work, as a fleece-like upper is imagined. The 3D textures and stitches that have long developed in our design studios provide the perfect resource for designers looking to turn their fantastical creations into a production reality.

One of the designers of the Santoni Pioneer program, Suzanne Oude Hengel, created footwear which in retrospect appears almost A.I. generated, while another SPP graduate Ting Ting Wu explored the properties of gathered and ruched socks, providing other avenues of inspiration to introduce 3D volume to creative footwear.