Manufacturing in developed countries has declined in many sectors including footwear, mainly because of labour intensive processes accompanied by high labour costs. However, it is largely acknowledged that manufacturing cannot be lost. This is particularly true for the footwear sector, since preserving a shoe making capability in Europe is considered vital for the future of the sector, in terms of employment, quality of products, service contents and kind of entrepreneurship of European companies. While the sector in Europe needs to transform itself from an industry driven, Resource Based activity to a market led Knowledge Based activity, it is essential that it maintains its advantage in style and fashion. To build a Knowledge Society and a Knowledge Manufacturing does not mean to concentrate only on the Style and Design phase but it also means to be able to master the whole product and process life cycle adding value (knowledge and intangible) to each phase.

These are the reasons that lead to the launch of the CEC-Made-Shoe Project (Comfort, Environmental and Custom made shoe), coordinated by the European Confederation of the Footwear Industry, included in the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Commission. This book is the sum of the contribution of Future Concept Lab, focusing on Style and Fashion Trends, in order to give clear visions on the future of fashion and consumption trends in Europe and in the whole world.

Real Footwear Trends
By: Francesco Morace & Paolo Ferrarini
Publisher: CEC-Made-Shoe Project (2008)
Language: English
Price: Free download
Download: itunes.apple.com