Abstract:
The way a shoe is constructed and assembled traditionally makes it hard for the
shoe to be disassembled and recycled at the end of its lifecycle. Only 13% shoes
are recycled annually, which is a lot less than their amount in production. (Warn,
Reframing End-of-life) This product proposes a new system for design for
disassembly. Elimination of glue and its replacement with methods like stitching,
and snap fit modules are integrated in this design to cater to this problem and
enable repair. It disassembles in specific steps which are intuitive for the person
disassembling. This design employs materials which are made by recycling
agricultural and plastic waste. These are also readily available here in Pakistan
and affordable for the locals. Its primary goal of easy assembly and disassembly
has been assessed by producing a real time prototype and disassembling it to
get separate parts. This solution has been proposed to benefit the environment
by reducing the environmental impact of shoes and eliminates resource
depletion by bringing materials back in production. By moving away from the
traditional methods, a closed loop production process can be achieved in the
footwear industry
