Product Design for the Circular Economy: A Design Process for Footwear

Abstract

The European Green Deal promotes a roadmap to a carbon-neutral Europe by 2050 [1]. An essential part of this plan is the transition to a circular economy (CE): a production and consumption model based on two complementary loops similar to biological cycles in nature [2]. This new economic model offers opportunities for change in every phase of the value chain, including Design [3, 4]. Moreover, through its transdisciplinary nature, Design might even be the primary driver of change [5]. Therefore, it is crucial to adapt the design process because it impacts value creation in the manufacturing industry. This research will build this argument from the perspective of the footwear design sector. Within the footwear sector, the ecological impact of products has been a management concern for the last decade. Attention has been mainly on environmentally friendly production and the use of recycled materials [6]. However, within the framework of the CE model, this narrow attention needs to be broadened. The action of this reexamination can be located in the design process [7], and the consequence of adapting this process to the industry demands might be an opportunity to contribute to carbon neutrality. Using a research through design [8] approach, this paper describes a design process through the author’s role of orienting a master dissertation degree project and demonstrates how a product designer can adapt a classical analysis-synthesis design process model to act within the CE model context. The investigation presents the sport shoe circular design process model by testing the application of the design principles from the Ellen McArthur Foundation (EMF) design process model [9] and arrives at a sports shoe circular product design (CPD) proposal. Therefore, the applied research project positions itself in the footwear design sector within the fashion industry [10]. The contribution of this paper is to research design process theory [7, 11] to arrive at a novel process model emerging from classical design but adapted to the emerging CE future. Through design pedagogy, the authors indicate how design higher education can orient classical design students to onboarding into the CE and CPD movement.