Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks is a ground-breaking new exhibition featuring nearly 60 designs pushing the boundaries of what footwear can be. It opened Feb. 7 at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts and continues through June 7.
This touring show, which was co-organized by the American Federation of Arts and Toronto’s Bata Show Museum, features an incredible mix of fashion, design, gaming, new media, architecture and material arts as well as sustainable and collaborative practices. It showcases work by designers as diverse as Rem D. Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid and innovators Mr. Bailey and Salehe Bembury, as well as collaborations with fashion icons like Stella McCartney and gaming and innovation companies such as PlayStation and Gravity Sketch.
Future Now groups these works in sections covering innovation, sustainability, transformative foot-wear and virtual footwear. Exhibition highlights include the self-lacing Nike MAG, digitally designed and 3D-printed shoes, sneakers made from mushroom leather and reclaimed ocean plastics, and virtual footwear.
Here are some of the cool kicks you will find in the exhibition:
Transformative footwear
Change occurs when the status quo is disrupted. From striving to build a more inclusive future to pushing the boundaries of design, the most visionary creators in the footwear industry are reimagining the future by breaking old molds and inventing new possibilities.
An example of this trend is the Octopus Shoe (2018), created by London-based industrial designer Mr. Bailey (Daniel Bailey) for Takashi Murakami’s ComplexCon exhibition Sneakers for Breakfast. This whimsical, wearable shoe features a tentacle-inspired sole that rises to encase the shoe’s upper.
Virtual footwear
The metaverse is a new frontier, a compelling place for creators that offers infinite potential for virtual footwear. The futurists working in the metaverse are blurring the boundaries between the physical and virtual worlds. This piece, Zaha Hadid x United, Nude NOVA (2022), is the product of a collaboration between Rem D. Koolhaas, United Nude creative director, and Zaha Hadid, the famed late architect with a passion for shoes. With no preconceptions about the rules of shoe design, the pair created an entirely new form for shoes that features a chrome vinyl upper, a carbon fiber wedge and heel, and a leather lining.
Innovative footwear
Innovation has long driven footwear design, with each new material and production method meeting shifting needs and stoking desires.
Today, innovation continues unabated. Cutting-edge technologies are being used by forward-thinking creators in startling ways, from responsive smart shoes to 3D-printed heels. A great example of this is SCRY, Undercurrent P Virtual Prototype (2022), created by Zixiong Wei for the Beijing-based footwear laboratory SCRY. It is a 3D-printed, digitally designed piece that blends architectural lines with a flowing look.
Sustainable footwear
Globally, more than 20 billion pairs of shoes are manufactured every year, and the majority of these are discarded as quickly as they are consumed. The environmental impact of such fast, cheap fashion has many concerned creators developing more sustainable materials and production methods to push the footwear industry toward a more circular economy. In the 19th century, shoemaking in the West was influenced by the advent of industrial production and the development of new synthetic materials. This resulted in artisan shoemaking taking a cultural backseat to mass production. Artisan shoemaking — the trade of the cobbler — can be seen in these work slippers from the 1860s.
Although mass production increased affordability and access to reliable footwear, it posed a new problem: Predetermined sizes, styles and colors limited consumer options and eventually led to worker exploitation and environmental waste. The designers represented in Future Now grapple with this complex history, prioritizing sustainability and style in equal measure.
Your footwear
OK, so maybe you don’t have a pair of these Nike MAG shoes, which are a replica of a self-tying shoe featured in the film Back to the Future Part II that Nike released in 2011 and then again in 2016, but you can still show off your own cool kicks and fabulous footwear at an event called Future: REMIX, set for 7–10 p.m. March 20 at the KIA. The KIA’s REMIX events seek to connect with the community around art. Future: REMIX will be an evening inspired by the Future Now exhibition and will include DJs, a cash bar, savory bites, sweet treats, dancing and a “kicks contest.” Scan this QR code for tickets to the event.
