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Rebuilding Athletic Shoes from the Inside Out<\/H2>
The name OESH, which is pronounced like the beginning of \u201cocean,\u201d is the word SHOE turned upside down and inside out. True to its name \u2014 and Kerrigan\u2019s research \u2014 the company aims to turn our understanding of sneakers inside out, too.<\/P>
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One of the fundamental insights that Kerrigan developed with her research teams at Harvard Medical School and the University of Virginia is that we have previously misunderstood how running and walking affect the body. Typical running shoes are built with so much cushioning and an elevated heel because they are based on the incorrect assumption that impact is greatest at the moment the foot strikes the ground.<\/P>
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Using 3D motion analysis and 3D robotic modeling, Kerrigan determined that the forces on our joints are actually higher a split-second later, when the foot is fully planted. Beyond that, traditional running shoes actually make those forces worse<\/EM>, not better. What\u2019s needed is a new kind of shoe with a perfectly flat sole.<\/P> <\/P> Like other physicians, Kerrigan knew that putting patients in better shoes could directly address their joint ailments. But whereas other doctors said \u201cthere\u2019s nothing available\u201d and left it at that, she set out to make it happen.<\/P> <\/P> She knew she could not fulfill her vision if she remained a full-time professor. \u201cThere\u2019s no room for a technologist in the typical university academic setting,\u201d she says, so she gave up her academic job to take on the challenges of being an entrepreneur.<\/P> <\/P> \u201cSetting up a business is the hardest thing I\u2019ve done, for sure,\u201d she says, \u201charder than medical school, or residency, even.\u201d These days, she still teaches one course at UVa, but now it\u2019s the first industrial design course offered by the university\u2019s architecture school, and it fits in alongside her more-than-full-time role leading OESH.<\/P> <\/P> <\/P> Most running shoes are made in China in factories that are great at traditional injection molding. But Kerrigan needed a different manufacturing process to accommodate the specialized materials she wanted to use. \u201cWe basically had to reinvent how they\u2019re made,\u201d she says, \u201cand that took doing it here.\u201d<\/P> <\/P> For starters, Kerrigan and her team have used Fusion 360 for the design of the shoes themselves. \u201cThat sculpt mode is really terrific,\u201d Kerrigan says, adding that she would eventually like to use T-splines to customize the fit of her shoes\u2019 uppers for each customer. She also dreams of customizing the biomechanics of each shoe based on the wearer\u2019s weight and stride length.<\/P> <\/P> The sole of OESH shoes is made from a mix of carbon fiber composite and other materials \u2014 a proprietary formulation that Kerrigan has been refining for many years. Existing 3D printers couldn\u2019t handle the material properly, so Kerrigan and her team have gone even deeper with Fusion 360 by using it to design custom 3D printers for their own purposes.<\/P> <\/P> \u201cIt’s not your typical desktop printer running with filament,\u201d she says, noting that her printers handle essentially all of the materials used in injection molding. Designing the printers herself has also allowed her to keep the manufacturing process cost-effective in terms of scale, speed, and the efficient use of materials.<\/P> <\/P> Kerrigan believes that in many ways we have lost the art of manufacturing. The OESH team is reclaiming this by doing things themselves in central Virginia, designing and building their own tooling as needed to achieve what they want with their shoes.<\/P> <\/P> \u201cThe actual process of making is not trivial,\u201d she says \u2014 a point she tries to get across to her design students. Her students will come up with \u201creally cool-looking, awesome shoe designs\u201d in her course, but she challenges them to think through the questions that arise in manufacturing: \u201cHow are you going to make it strong enough to be practical? How are you going to figure out the tooling so that you can make a lot of them?\u201d<\/P> <\/P> She laughs as she quotes the mantra of a colleague: \u201cIf it were easy, everybody would be doing it.\u201d<\/P> <\/P> <\/P> OESH recently began making sandals<\/A>, the Athena collection<\/A><\/SPAN>, proving the concept that soles can be 3D printed for mass customization. Meanwhile, their La Vida sneakers<\/A> continue to sell more and more. When we interviewed Kerrigan, she and her colleagues were prepping their production line for a typical run of 1,000 pairs.<\/P> <\/P>New Shoe, New Career<\/H2>
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Rethinking Shoe Materials and the Manufacturing Process<\/H2>
A Return to Hands-On Manufacturing<\/H2>
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The Satisfactions of Entrepreneurship<\/H2>