From everyday street peeps, to high end collectors, we all have shoes as a part of our lives at the back end; purchasing them to wear or collect, but what about what goes on at the front end?
Daniel Bailey is the man behind ConceptKicks, a fantastic European project that specialises in celebrating and exploring the amazing design work that goes into the sneaker world.
Daniel was kind enough to spend some time discussing about what's getting him excited in the sneaker world, how shoes are art, and how inspiring the current era is. Read on!
Daniel was kind enough to spend some time discussing about what's getting him excited in the sneaker world, how shoes are art, and how inspiring the current era is. Read on!
IDYSM: What is Concept Kicks, and how/when did it come to exist?
Daniel: ConceptKicks is a website that showcases all things footwear design and
shines some spotlight on the amazingly talented, upcoming and professional
designers in the industry.
I created ConceptKicks
about a year ago as a resource for young and professional designers to be
inspired and interact with one another, as well as educating sneakerheads about the many people involved and the
hard work that goes into creating footwear from a design and development perspective.
IDYSM: Why the fascination with design, when sneakers were initially designed
to be a practical piece of footwear?
Daniel: As sneakers have evolved over the years, they’ve become far more than just
something practical; they’ve become functioning pieces of art. The design has
been thought out and executed so well that they’ve propelled footwear as a
product into realms that most other pieces of clothing will ever hope to reach.
There’s just something
special about sneakers that can totally alter the way you feel, it’s a total design
experience. From opening the nicely designed box, seeing that beautifully
designed shoe, taking in that new shoe smell, lacing them up…it’s very ritualistic.
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IDYSM: When do you think kicks made the move from being a practical item to a
work of art?
Daniel: I think one of the major turning points would the Air Jordan line. I
mean these were performance sneakers that looked so beautiful that people would
buy two pairs (one to wear and the other to display) and wanted to wear them
outside of the Basketball court, which kind of blurred the lines between them a
performance shoe, a fashion shoe and a work of art.
IDYSM: What era do you think has been the most inspiring in sneaker history
design and why?
Daniel: It’s always easy to look back and say ‘I think such and such was the
best time’, but I actually think we’re in an extremely inspiring time right
now. Brands are really starting to push the technology envelop, but are doing
it in a very stylistic manner. We’re also on the cusp of mixing high design
with more performance footwear (Puma & Mihara Yasuhiro, Adidas and Raf
Simons etc…) which is leading to some really interesting looking footwear.
IDYSM: Across all eras, if it’s possible to pick just one shoe as the most
influential and important of all time from a design perspective, what would it
be and why?
Daniel: I’m glad you added ‘from a design perspective’ in there, because that
significantly changes my answer. I think a big shoe from a purely design
standpoint that really altered the game forever, would most likely be the, Nike
Air Max. Tinker Hatfield has been responsible for a lot of monumental moments in
the footwear industry, but I’d maybe say of all his design ideas, this is
arguably the best. Making the air bag visible, showcasing the technology and
actually making it part of the design aesthetic showed people that you can have
the functional aspects of the shoe directly affect the form in a positive way.
Even to this day the shoe resonates with people and has a cult following, that
shows how well the form & function fit together, he & Nike really created
something very special.
IDYSM: Where does the current era rate?
Daniel: I think we’re currently in an extremely inspiring time right now, it’s
definitely up there.
IDYSM: And designers? Who has been
the most inspiring designer in your mind and why?
Daniel: I’m pretty ADD with who I think is great, as I can find designers (and artists,
Daniel Arsham for example) outside of footwear be incredibly inspiring for
footwear. I brought this guy just before, but Mihara Yasuhiro dropped some
ridiculous shoes with Puma lately that I find amazingly inspiring. For a
strictly shoe design angle though, I’m a big fan of the stuff Nathan Van Hook
from Nike has been coming up with.
IDYSM: There is more choice than ever before now, do you think that’s a
negative thing, as it see’s some really key design pieces blur into the vast
number of shoes out there?
Daniel: It’s definitely a very copy & paste era in a lot of ways. That’s
partly to do with the general consumers taste, they want something that’s
generally pretty safe, sameness, so that’s where the money is. Generally if you
create some super amazing, innovative and stylistic footwear, they’re not going
to make the type of money a footwear brand needs to make to be able to afford
to stay afloat (at least not at first) without at least also creating some
simple, somewhat generic shoes that they know people are going to buy. This of
course leads to a lot of similar shoes in the market place, and sometimes good shoes
can get lost within it all, but we only have ourselves as consumers to blame
for that.
IDYSM: There currently seems to be a lot of tech innovation going on across all
brands. Is that good for pushing
the game forwards, or is it a bad thing with too many gimmicks out there?
Daniel: I think it used to be a bad thing. Brands didn’t really know how to
incorporate innovative functionality into a shoe without making it taking over
the whole look or it looking a bit cheesy. Don’t get me wrong, not every brand
gets it right now, but generally I think we’re doing a great job of creating
tasteful, technology infused footwear that will stand the test of time.
IDYSM: What are your own tastes?
Daniel: My own tastes are very simple; Well thought out, clever and discrete
design with a great deal of attention to detail. I like the more outlandish
stuff every once and a while (some of the Hussein Chalayan x Puma collab for
example) and can appreciate a lot of the wilder types of designs, but I myself
appreciate the little things. A perfect example would be the Garbstore x Reebok GS sneaker where they flipped the guts of the sneaker and put the inner of the
shoe on the outer, creating something different, clever & super interesting.
IDYSM: You’re a
designer too and part of FTWRDSGN, please tell is a bit about you and the group
and what you hope to achieve.
Daniel: Yeah I dabble a little, ha. I like to be involved in a lot of different
projects in as many different areas as possible, some by my own label/persona
MrBailey and some with my FTWRDSGN collaborative. FTWRDSGN is a team of super talented creatives that deal mainly with designing footwear for clients, from initial
conception, all the way up to development of the final sample. MrBailey is
really quite varied, right now I’m involved in quite a few projects that will
dropping next year involving everything from 3D printed footwear to a motion
steered, F1 style, JetSki. MrBailey is basically me, and everything I’m lucky
enough to be involved in, and is a vessel I use to try to help spread
inspiration and knowledge of design, creativity and general artistry through
the products & articles I create through that moniker.
IDYSM: I always end my In Their Shoes interviews with this question so I have
to ask; what’s on your feet right now?
Daniel: Right now I’ve got on some super warm wool lined Palladium boots.
