sketchythedawg’s recipe for success:
- 4 gucci shoes
- A pinch of mystique
- 2 meatballs
- 1 very large eggplant
The goal of this project was to expand the current footwear range at Gucci by targeting four different consumer categories: Casual, Urban Casual, Elevated Athletic, and Excessive. These are new styles based on my perception of contemporary Gucci footwear design language. Designed by sketchythedawg.
The first style is addressing the ‘Casual’ category. A fresh take on the popular ‘Ace’ sneaker, a vintage tennis style silhouette. The new style dubbed the ‘Court Elite’ is given a more nimble and athletic feel with a tight-knit mesh upper, contained by a structured eyestay and perforated toe cap. The quarter panel features a triangular cut out with a perforated underlay to keep things light visually, and finally, a sweeping heel counter embellished with the iconic Gucci webbing. The shoe sits on a low profile cupsole with a classic radial tread design.
3D in development
The second style is intended to target the category that I would call ‘Urban Casual’, which can loosely be described as ‘casual with a bit more flair’. The existing shoe in reference here is the ‘Screener’, another informal shoe from Gucci, yet slightly more expressive than the ‘Ace’ via the use of paneling and a more directional cupsole tooling. The new style, dubbed the ‘Fountaineer’ is a supercharged update to the ‘Screener’. Another mesh based upper, this time adorned with an array of organic overlays, embellished with rubber lace loops and logo patches, and placed into a sculpted rubber cupsole.
The third style is aimed at the ‘Elevated Athletic’ category. This style is supposed to be the Gucci ‘Run’ shoe on steroids. The synthetic upper sports massive quarter and heel cutouts exposing a gradient mesh upper, supported by free-floating cable lace eyelets, and finally caged by translucent TPR eyestay wings. The dynamic upper sits on an exaggerated, dual-density sculpted foam midsole, with rubber outsole pods and an aerodynamic toe bumper. Faster than the bullet out of the starting gun, this shoe is dubbed the ‘recoil’.
The fourth and final style is the ‘Exodus’, named in response to creative director Alessandro Michele’s exit from Gucci. Its possible that Alessandro can be credited with bringing maximalism to Gucci. The reference shoe here is the ‘Basket Hi’, a highly sophisticated and meticulous approach to a ‘purposefully messy’ take on an 80s-90s basketball shoe. The new style here takes a slightly more refined direction from a composition standpoint, but carries many elements of visual and tactile overload. A symphony of overlays, underlays, materials, textures, embellishments, and form. Featuring an unnecessary amount of injection molded details (my favorite). Bad for the environment, bad for your wallet, great for showing people how cool you think you are.
3D in development