To celebrate the desert boot’s 70th anniversary, Industrial Design students were challenged by the store manager of Clarks in Eindhoven to come up with an innovative addition. He brought fifteen pairs of desert boots to Lucid in September, ready to receive a makeover.

Study association Lucid regularly puts together design cases, and one of the organizers this time is Bachelor’s student Elke van Dael. “The theme of the Clarks design case is Local Heroes, and students had to write a motivation to participate. Fifteen student(teams) wanted to discover the fashion side, think out of the box, and pay tribute to Eindhoven most of all. They certainly succeed. You can see for yourself in the expo in study association Lucid’s memberspace until Thursday 15 October, or on Flickr.”

Audience award

A blob on the shoe nose, a city map under its sole, or a heel made of skateboard wood, Eindhoven is clearly present in most of the designs. Some designs show an entire history timeline, and a few designs include sensors and small lamps. One of the requirements was that the shoes would still be wearable. The fifteen pairs of Clarks come with videos, photo series or posters. You’re not allowed to try them on, you do however get to cast your vote for your favorite pair, until Thursday, 15:00 hrs.

During the DDW (starting Saturday 17 October), the three pairs of shoes with the most votes will be displayed in the window of Clarks at the Demer in the city center. Passers-by will select the final winner.