The Intermission: Grad Show

ON THE RUN
The goal was tore-designa product or brand in a sustainable manner. We decided to work on improving the standard shoebox by reducing the amount of material required for production. Thinking aboutin-depthsolutions, we decided to create a sustainable, reusable shoe care kit for breast cancer support, fundraising and awareness.

Research and Strategy

During the research we discovered that breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosis in Canadian women with 1 in 4 women diagnosed. Deaths have decreased 44% since 1986 (Statistics provided by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation). Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and CIBC team up for the annual Run for the Cure to raise breast cancer awareness and reduce the stigma behind it. I wanted to create a product specifically for the run. These shoe care kits are perfect for ‘on the go’ preparation for marathons and walks and will attract new supporters to get involved. All proceeds and donations from the shoe care kit will be given to The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. The sooner we find a cure, the less people will be affected with the disease.

Thinking Outside the Box

How can we make a shoebox that doesn’t look like a box? I didn’t want to create just another rectangular box and slap on a nice label. I did a bit more research into the structure of shoes and typical shoe accessories. I also wanted to incorporate instructions on how to take care of your shoes so I decided to create a shoe kit rather than just an enhanced shoebox.

After creating a few more sketches of how I wanted the kit to be laid out the next step was researching materials. Finding the right material was tough because I wanted to find something that fit the theme of the care kit. The material needed to be inexpensive, flexible, and sustainable. I tested out different materials such as cardboard, different paper stocks, PVC and finally canvas. Canvas fit all of the criteria and best of all I was able to use heat transfer paper to transfer on my design onto the canvas.

Final Stretch

Instead of improving the standard shoebox I created a new product based on the idea of a shoebox. On the Run is a sustainable, reusable; portable, compact, lightweight shoe care kit mainly used for Breast Cancer walks and runs. On the Run is a universal package that can also be used for other fundraising events. The kit includes a pair of shoes with variant colour options and shoe sizes ranging from6-12, a shoehorn, a pair of socks, extra shoelaces, and insoles. There are care instructions included to ensure longevity in wear.

During the design process I learned that there is always room for improvement and you can always expand on ideas along the way. I made many multiple changes to the product but the idea never changed. There was a lot of trial and error but in the end I finally produced something completely new from the original prototype.