Ajouter
A sustainable pointe shoe
spring 2022 | 4 months
Problem
Pointe shoes have a very short lifetime and have to go in landfill, making them very unsustainable
Opportunity
A new pointe shoe that is more sustainable in materials, use time and end of life.
Professional ballerinas go through 100+ pointe shoes a year with each pair only lasting 10-20 hours.
The New York City Ballet goes through 8,500 pointe shoes a season for their 95 dancers, with each shoe lasting an average of two days.
Most pointe shoes end up in landfill
Ballet slippers vs pointe shoes
Ballet slipper
Pointe shoe
How might we make pointe shoes more sustainable?
elegant | secure | timeless | functional | comfortable
Have the same stability as a traditional pointe shoe
Offer the same performance
To be recyclable
94 sustainable solutions
The Okala Ecodesign strategy wheel helps designers brainstorm for each stage in a products life in terms of sustainability
Top 3 concepts
Replaceable box and shank
Goes over a ballet slipper
Biodegradable
Ajouter is 78% more sustainable and lasts 5x longer
Put on over a ballet slipper
Ties the same way as a traditional pointe shoe, giving the same support and security
3D printed plastic and 100% recyclable
Reduced material
Sustainability impact
Using the life cycle assessment (LCA) I compared the material, processes, and transport of each material. This is how the sustainability impact was calculated to find that the new shoe is 78% more sustainable.
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