Designing Shoes for Alive Shoes

I had the amazing opportunity to design some shoes for Alive Shoes, so I thought I'd share all the details about the design process and how to order them with you all. 

A few weeks ago a company called Alive Shoes got in contact with me, they invited me to apply to design a pair of shoes for them. I was hesitant to apply at first because I was worried it was a scam. After I did my research and concluded that Alive Shoes was a legitimate company that actually wanted me to apply to design shoes for them, I was still hesitant. I've always loved fashion (hence the beauty/fashion page on my blog) and although I could see myself working in some field of styling one day (not that I'm exactly looking for a career in fashion at the moment.. but if anyone wants to offer me a job let me know!) but never did I consider I could do anything even remotely within the field of design. 

I started brainstorming ideas, because if I was even going to apply to design shoes I wanted to have a solid idea and a vision for my design. Once I had some solid workable ideas in my head, I finally worked up the courage to apply. Within days they had notified me that my application was approved and I would be designing a pair of shoes for them. I had been skeptical at first, but at this point I was very excited. The entire design process would be digitally (which was a total relief since I can't draw to save my life). I started out with reading an entire handbook about the process of designing and basically a guide for how the program worked. I didn't realize I'd also get to design a tag and box for my shoes, which was totally awesome since that would make the design more personal. 

I started out my going through all the different styles of shoes available for me to work with. I decided on what they call a "hi top polo sneaker", which is basically a high top sneaker (so exactly what they called it). I liked this specific style of shoe, because the shoe would be unisex and therefore needed to look appealing for any gender, and this style was perfect for any gender. I knew I wanted the shoe to be purple, because if you know me (or maybe even if you don't know me) you know my favorite color is purple. I hadn't really decided on what other colors I wanted for the shoe although black was definitely on the short list. When I was going over color options I stumbled across a teal/aqua/blue/green color (I'm horrible at describing colors) and even though it isn't a color I'd typically gravitate toward I immediately wanted to use that color. Eventually I ended up with a purple shoe with black detailing and laces in that teal/aqua/blue/green color. I also added yellow stitching to the shoe, which was kind of a nod at Doc Martens and also anyone who is familiar with the color wheel knows purple and yellow go great together so that was my small addition of yellow. 

At this point it was time to create the tag that would go on my shoes, but before I could do that I needed a name for the design/my shoe brand. I thought of relating the name back to my Kennedy C Media logo by calling it Kiss Kiss like the kiss on my logo, but since the shoe was unisex I didn't want Kiss Kiss to make them entirely too feminine. I thought of a few other names, but ultimately I decided I wanted everyone who wears them to feel like a legend however they define legend (an athlete, a superstar, and everyday hero, etc.) so I thought why not just call them Legend. Since I might design more shoes in the future (or maybe even clothes, who knows?) I called them Legend By K so technically the shoe itself is Legend but the brand is By K so I could have other shoes called _______ By K. Why K and not Kennedy? Honestly I wanted to add a personal touch, but my name felt entirely too common if you hear Kennedy you won't relate it back to me (even though it would be great if you did) you'll probably think of President Kennedy or someone else first and even though K won't exactly make you think of me it also won't necessarily make you think of anyone else, plus I've always loved my initial so I thought why not. 

As far as designing the actual tag I had an image in my head the entire time, which was a lightning bold and the colors purple and black are kind of always in the back of my head so I did my best to create sleek simple tag that incorporated the lightning bolt and colors and also said Legend By K. I came up with just that a sleek tag that incorporated what I wanted without taking away from the shoe. I ended up liking the lightning bolt so much that I added it to the inner tongue of the shoe. If anyone decides to fold the tongue down everyone can see the lightning bolt, but if they don't fold it down it can be a hidden secret that only the shoe's wearer knows about. 

The final touch in terms of designing the shoe was to design the box they would come in. Automatically the tag or "logo" of sorts would be on the box, but I also needed to add an image that I thought represented me or the shoe in some kind of way. Of course this meant using the color purple once more. This time I didn't want to add too much detail because I didn't want the box to take away from the shoe in any way. Eventually I decided on simple paint strokes in different shades of purple. They are simple and you can ponder on the meaning of them while also enjoying the design of the shoe itself. 

Overall I enjoyed the process of designing the shoes, and the people at Alive Shoes were very helpful and made everything very simple. I also learned I quite like designing and wouldn't mind working on fashion styling or designing in the future both relating to shoes and clothing. 

The shoes are officially on sale and cost $200 they are limited edition, shipping is free, they are handmade in Italy and made of Italian leather. I need to sell six more pairs in order for them to go into production (not trying to be sales-y but hey self-promotion doesn't hurt right). 

If you want to buy a pair you can order them here: https://www.aliveshoes.com/legend-by-k