Footwear Customization
A Fit Metric for Footwear Customization
Ameersing Luximon , Ravindra S. Goonetilleke and Kwok-L Tsui
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Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay School of Industrial and Systems Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia.
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Abstract Due to rapid advancements in technology and the globalization of companies, customized products are becoming key to a company’s competitiveness, efficiency, profitability and market share. As a result, there is a trend toward extensive collection of individual customer data and the footwear industry is no exception. Even though the importance of footwear fit and comfort is well surveyed, the term, fit still remains somewhat subjective. A few studies have provided a methodology to quantify fit in 2-D. The 2-D fit metric has been worthwhile to show many footwear fitting problems. In this paper, the 2-D methodology has been extended to 3-D. First, the foot and the last outlines were aligned. Then, considering the heel height and toe-spring of the last, the height dimensions were included in the computation of the potential mismatch between foot and shoe. For ease of interpretation, the mismatch was color-coded. The proposed method enables footwear fit quantification so that fit-related comfort may be predicted. Furthermore, if a 3D foot scan is available, the proposed method will enable the manufacturer to choose the "best-fitting" last from a group of available lasts.
Keywords: Footwear, Fit, Comfort 1 INTRODUCTION and distribution [4]. Spencer [6] discusses the automation that is taking place in the footwear industry in order to produce high variety, low volume and low cost products. Mass customization can take place at different levels subject to the technological limitations and the product variations [4]. Thus, it is important to determine how much customization should be undertaken. For example, if the market
Ameersing Luximon , Ravindra S. Goonetilleke and Kwok-L Tsui
1 1 1 2
Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay School of Industrial and Systems Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia.
2
Abstract Due to rapid advancements in technology and the globalization of companies, customized products are becoming key to a company’s competitiveness, efficiency, profitability and market share. As a result, there is a trend toward extensive collection of individual customer data and the footwear industry is no exception. Even though the importance of footwear fit and comfort is well surveyed, the term, fit still remains somewhat subjective. A few studies have provided a methodology to quantify fit in 2-D. The 2-D fit metric has been worthwhile to show many footwear fitting problems. In this paper, the 2-D methodology has been extended to 3-D. First, the foot and the last outlines were aligned. Then, considering the heel height and toe-spring of the last, the height dimensions were included in the computation of the potential mismatch between foot and shoe. For ease of interpretation, the mismatch was color-coded. The proposed method enables footwear fit quantification so that fit-related comfort may be predicted. Furthermore, if a 3D foot scan is available, the proposed method will enable the manufacturer to choose the "best-fitting" last from a group of available lasts.
Keywords: Footwear, Fit, Comfort 1 INTRODUCTION and distribution [4]. Spencer [6] discusses the automation that is taking place in the footwear industry in order to produce high variety, low volume and low cost products. Mass customization can take place at different levels subject to the technological limitations and the product variations [4]. Thus, it is important to determine how much customization should be undertaken. For example, if the market
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