Life inspired eco-friendly footwear

BOUND: Emma Warren, a 24-year-old industrial design graduate from Massey University has designed Bound by 8,a sustainable shoe that is made from only natural latex and wool.

A design awards finalist from Lake Ferry has combined farming and footwear into a planet-friendly creation.

Emma Warren, 24, was one of three finalists in the New Zealand James Dyson Award 2015, and was yesterday named runner-up.

Her project, Bound by 8, is a seamless, all-natural shoe that can be made on the farm out of nothing but wool and latex. It is named for the eight processes, from shearing to drying, that take the bespoke (made to fit) product from the sheep's back to the wearer's foot.

The project, says Warren, "brings together all the influences that have made up my life to this point". These include a childhood on the farm at Lake Ferry, which fostered "a beautiful kind of connection" to the outdoors, and an understanding of production as something done in connection with nature.

As a pupil at St Matthew's Collegiate, "the artistic direction of Miss Teng really influenced me", and an industrial design course at Massey University's Wellington campus inspired Warren with the problem-solving potential of design.

"I got really interested in design and how, if it's done right, it can change things. I wanted to make a product and get past making something to be consumed and then thrown out," she said.

Warren's passion led her to become interested in the Swedish philosophy of design, she said. "It's something to do with their climate and the time of year they spend inside ... I was fascinated by how considered it was."

Warren studied at Linnaeus University in Sweden, embracing the way the Swedish "consider the life cycle analysis of a product" in its design, and have a teamwork, multidisciplinary approach.

"They draw upon engineering, psychiatry ... (resulting in) the grounding of a piece of work in its environment."

The Bound by 8 shoes follow this philosophy, and are as much about the process as the product itself.

The awards brief asked designers to make something that solved a problem, and for Warren it was the amount of waste created in mass-producing expendable shoes.

Her shoes are made on the farm as the wool is taken from shearing to felting, and wax foot moulds are used to make a custom-fitted shoe, with the latex bonding with the wool as it dries.

"It's definitely a concept; there are areas that need to be worked out," Warren says.

Warren is working as an assistant shoemaker in Sydney, involved in the making of bespoke shoes.

Ten New Zealand entries, including the three national finalists, will go to the international James Dyson Award competition for a chance of $67,000 to put towards commercialising the idea, plus another $11,000 for the designer's university.