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by adityaathalye 333 days ago
Brilliant work! Zippers got nothing on this! I am particularly taken by how the "stich" weaves into itself, to flatten the seam.

Now, what about footwear, I'm thinking. Stitched soles + uppers are so much more durable. If you could cut a sole to a person's foot size, then they could construct the upper to their best-fit, best-colour-combo design.
1 comments
m-a-t-t-i 333 days ago
I've tried some footwear! These had a really soft rubber soles, but I've also made ones where the soles were cut from a sheet of hard Vibram rubber: https://self-assembly.fi/canvas-shoes
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adityaathalye 333 days ago
So cool! So, I buy this brand of thin-sole shoes called Xero. Their Do It Yourself kit is a simple Vibram sole I can cut to size, a hole punch to find the right fit, and a long lace that I can tie in many different ways, including as a slipper, or sandal, or greek-style laced-up huarache. Tie style, with different colour combinations of sole and lace make for distinctive personalisation.

Your stuff takes it to a whole other level. It makes me imagine a constructible footwear that can morph from a flip-flop (band across foot) all the way up to an all-weather knee-length boot.

No doubt you have already imagined how experimentation with materials and sealing/binding techniques could yield a design system that everyone can make their own; from the multi-spectral La Sape, to baby wear for those fast-growth years, to field equipment for the extreme adventurer.

(edit: fixed broken sentence)

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m-a-t-t-i 333 days ago
Yeah, morphing is really the key idea here. You don't have to make all design decisions beforehand, but can wear something for a while and then make changes based on your needs & observations.

I haven't quite figured out how to apply this thinking to seam sealing though. The current garments that have taped / waterproof seams are locked into the taped configuration. For tents I have some geometrically water repellent structures (that guide the water away as long as it's coming from above), but for the soles of footwear, you might want something 100% sealed.

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