”I Rebel, therefore I exist.” Albert Camus’ famous words were the key inspiration for a batch of students from Design School Kolding who spent the past semester designing shoes and bags with ECCO. For the 6th year in a row, Design School Kolding partnered up with ECCO to launch an ECCO Shoe and Bag Design Course, inviting the students into the practical reality of ECCO’s world of design and shoemaking.
This year, it all started at ECCO’s headquarters in August where 60 students from Design School Kolding met with ECCO’s shoe designers and got their first glimpse of the design and manufacturing processes that go into making a shoe or a bag. Under the headline ’Stages of Rebellion,’ the students were challenged to create a shoe or a bag collection inspired by rebellions or a rebellious mindset. The students were to base their designs on ECCO elements, like an ECCO sole, and then allow their creativity to build on these elements, combining the ECCO universe with the ‘Stages of Rebellion’ theme.
After that, the students spent weeks researching, designing and refining, and halfway through the semester, they came back to ECCO to produce a prototype of their product. And finally last week, the students returned to ECCO to present their final products and concepts to ECCO’s design team.
Multifunctional and multipurpose products
Creativity sparked in the shoe collections that were presented at ECCO’s headquarters in Tønder, Denmark. All looking towards the future, the students had designed products that took upcoming megatrends into consideration, e.g. the nomad movement, disaster handling, climate action, etc. Among the results of their efforts are multifunctional shoes with emergency functionality to protect against natural catastrophes, deconstructable shoes that would allow a sandal to turn into a boot, and flexible multipurpose bags, just to mention some of their visionary products.
Following the students’ presentations, ECCO’s design team gave their feedback to the students. And again this year, ECCO’s designers were impressed.
“It is such an injection of energy for us when you come here and work with us. Your creativity generates optimism – for you, but most definitely also for us. We thank you very much,” were some of the words of praise from Liam Maher to the design students.
About ECCO
ECCO is one of the world’s leading shoe brands, combining style and comfort. ECCO’s success is built on products with a great fit and top-quality leathers. ECCO is a highly responsible company that owns and manages every aspect of the value chain from leather and shoe manufacturing to wholesale and retail activities. ECCO’s products are sold in 99 countries from over 2,250 ECCO shops and more than 14,000 sales points. ECCO is family-owned, founded in Denmark in 1963, and employs 21,300 people worldwide.