Out of this world
Adidas’ director of footwear innovation, Arnau Sanjuan, tells World Footwear how software program Gravity Sketch is changing his approach to shoe design.
Creative people have a strong spatial intelligence, but the tools that are used to create digital 3D content are heavily based on logic, maths and linguistics, according to Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. This mismatch was something industrial designers Daniela Paredes and Oluwaseyi Sosanya wanted to tackle as part of their joint Master’s project at Imperial College London in 2013 – surely it would make sense to make the design part more intuitive if your brain worked in a different way.
Their research coincided with being introduced to the then-nascent virtual reality (VR) programs that were beginning to emerge in gaming but were not prevalent in industrial design at the time. It seemed it could offer a way to create a 3D image that could better represent an object’s final form. From this initial project, Gravity Sketch was launched. “The goal we set ourselves was to empower people to communicate and materialise their ideas in a quick and intuitive way, just as if you were pulling the thoughts from your head,” Ms Paredes tells us. “It’s about helping people bring their ideas out and being able to communicate them.”
Following the course, she took a job in the innovations team at automotive group Jaguar, which cemented the realisation that there was a need for an easier way to create in 3D. Using a headset and moving from 2D sketch to 3D interpretation programs could save time and money. “The way that designers are working now is definitely changing,” she says. “This change is bringing more voices into the beginning of the design process.”
Globally connected
The onset of the global pandemic, which pushed many office-based jobs into people’s homes, created the need for better communication with colleagues around the world. It was at this point, at the start of 2020, that sportswear brand adidas began to work with Gravity Sketch software. “There has been a change from the previous process, from before the pandemic, with the use of the new tools, such as virtual reality and Gravity Sketch,” adidas’ director of footwear innovation, Arnau Sanjuan, tells World Footwear. “It has allowed me and other people to have an immersive experience, something I had never experienced before, in the way we create products.”
While there were similar programs in the market, many designers felt they were not intuitive enough and did not really integrate into their way of doing things, he adds. “Gravity Sketch has the depth required to generate an object from the idea you have in your mind, making it flow easily. As soon as you try it, it’s a no-brainer to integrate it into your workflow, especially when we focus on the ideation phase of product design.”
Crucially, the program offers the ability for more than one designer to contribute to the design at once. By wearing headsets, adidas designers across the US and Europe added their vision as the shoes were drawn and took shape.
Gravity Sketch has created a metaverse that is not consumer-facing but is an internal space for employees to collaborate on ideas. “Only a few people have the skills required to design in the metaverse and that’s not good,” says Ms Paredes. “Our goal is to democratise that. Ultimately, we’re all creative and we know there are creative minds out there who are not able to sketch in perspective.”
Simple to use
Using headsets and hand controls, Gravity Sketch software enables users to draw in 3D, and can interact with CAD and rendering software. It allows free-form sketching while creating CAD-ready data, and it is accessible through any device. It also enables users to import 2D sketches and images to trace over and to create a 3D wireframe. The companies say it only it takes a couple of hours to learn most of the tools, and full sketches are possible in only a few days. This simplicity means members of the team who are used to drawing only in 2D can quickly learn to design in 3D. It also means a design can be assessed by team members in a matter of hours, rather than waiting for a 3D model that could take up to three weeks.
“We need to build a bridge to allow people to go from an idea to a physical sample,” adds Mr Sanjuan. “How to integrate that into our pipeline is something that I am focused on. You can iterate more in the 3D space so the outcome is well thought-through and you are able to discuss everything before cutting any material or creating anything physical.”
Being able to work collaboratively from the start could also help reduce problems later on, when it could be too late to make changes, adds Ms Paredes. “You end up with a process that involves a lot of compromises and with products that do not necessarily reflect completely the intent of that first sketch. The software enables people to speak the same language at the beginning of the process and to make the process richer.”
Time and cost savings
While it is not a tool that will affect the manufacturing side, at least not in the near term, and not an engineering tool to make moulds, developers are looking at ways that samples and prototypes can be worked on across the supply chain. For instance, a factory in China could upload a 3D file of a prototype shoe into Gravity Sketch and this can then be refined by designers. They could all also be in the same virtual space having a real-time conversation around the 3D digital object. This reduces waste and would dramatically cut down on time as well as the CO2 and cost associated with shipping samples.
Technology and software is constantly evolving, and Gravity Sketch asks for feedback from users to help with the development process, helping to add functionality or refine its tools. It suggests users share their experiences on social platforms and help generate wider professional adoption, which will lead to a more inclusive experience.
Adidas’ first range of shoes designed inside a virtual museum shaped like a giant footprint, is the Futurenaturals family. These shoes mimic the shape of the foot and use a Primeknit upper. The program has also been embraced by footwear designers at Reebok and Anta, showing its potential in the athletic shoe sector, as well as at carmakers Ford and Nissan.
Both Mr Sanjuan and Ms Paredes see the demand for the technology growing in every sector that uses sketches. “You can generate things you were not able to generate before because you did not have that fully immersive experience,” says Mr Sanjaun. “Designers will see a new way of working and will want to embrace it. I think it will soon be standard.”
Co-founder Daniela Paredes demonstrates VR headsets using Gravity Sketch.
Credit: adidas
