Innovation Team's Favorite Shoes
Sabrina
Innovation Engineer
What is your favorite piece of tech you’ve worked on?
Roamer unified tech
What made you get into engineering?
I always knew I was a maker and that I loved making and designing things. I also really liked art and industrial design felt like a place where art and engineering merged together. I enjoyed the idea of making an applicable product with artistic expression and how hands on the career path is. I get to do things like prototyping, sewing, and welding while also working with computer programs like Photoshop and SolidWorks. It’s a well rounded career and there’s always something new.
.png?v=1662738651782&options=w1000)
Craig
Innovation Engineer
Favorite piece of tech you’ve worked on?
Athens Cage
How did you get into engineering?
I started out at college in Portland doing business management - then transferred to BYU and was still doing business management. I was in that major for three years before I realized that what I actually liked about business was creating the products and the strategy behind creating those products so I switched over to industrial design.
How did you get into shoes?
So I grew up in Portland in the 90’s which meant that basketball and shoes were LIFE. So I always wanted to go into shoes because they were something I was both curious and excited about. I never wrote it off as a possibility but I also never actually expected it to happen but I was in the right place at the right time to be bale to work with HandsFree labs.
What do you love about shoes?
Shoes are art. There is both technology and emotion in them and they are an expression of self. You can use them to convey who you are to the world without using words.
Fun fact: Craig thinks he could go about 6 months without wearing the same pair of shoes twice. He has two full rooms of them at home.
Ali
Innovation Engineer
Favorite piece of tech you've worked on?
Kids Athens - working on being able to shrink down the tech from an adult shoe to kids sizes and have it still function how it’s supposed to. Not only that, but making sure kids would be able to figure it out and be coordinated enough to do it on their own. One of the most satisfying moments in the process was seeing a three year old try them on for the first time and realizing they had a pair of hands-free shoes and could put them on without any help.
What made you get into engineering?
It all started with a chair. I started designing furniture in high school for AP Art when my teacher asked me “what inspires you?.” I thought it would be really cool to build a chair out of materials you wouldn’t normally build a chair out of and they told me “if you do it - you’ll get an a.” So I made one out of cardboard and duct tape and it was nearly the size of a loveseat - it was huge. When I was finished the chair got accepted into an art show which then led to me getting a scholarship for college where I majored in industrial design and minored in engineering. I loved graphic design too and it felt like industrial design has elements of that as well. I also made shoes in high school in addition to making furniture and had an internship with a Nike shoe designer while I was in college.
Fun Fact: Ali designed the Bahama colorway - one of our best selling colorways
Kirk
Innovation Engineer
Favorite piece of tech you’ve worked on?
All the tech I’m working on is still a secret - but you’ll be seeing it in the future
How did you get into engineering?
I’ve been drawing shoes since I was 10 years old. I studied mechanical engineering in college and then worked for a military boot company for about two years. I then returned to school to get a masters in mechanical engineering with an emphasis in biomechanics.
What is Biomechanics?
Biomechanics is the engineering and math associated with human movement. I specialized in foot and ankle research which is how I knew I wanted to work on shoes when I graduated. After getting my masters degree my focus in shoes shifted from simply an aesthetic perspective to more of a mechanical perspective. How can I make a shoe that works better with the human foot?
Fun fact: Kirk designed his own shoe which he brought pictures of to show during his interview
