The collaboration between The Future of Walking and IFA Paris continues. The Future of Walking is a London-based start-up business, whose main concern is air quality and how to purify it. Their flagship product is a shoe made out of air filters, in order to reduce the damage caused by pollution through micro-contributions. This way, these shoes designed by The Future of Walking filter the air directly through the sole and deliver clean air whenever the user walks in them.

TFW x IFA Paris

This collaboration started off on January 23rd with a day of conceptual brainstorming, covering subjects going from the elaboration of the consumer’s journey to the visualization of the project that would eventually lead to the development of a marketable sneaker range, using the filtration system designed by The Future of Walking.

This past June 5th marked the end of the project as the second year students of the Bachelor Fashion Marketing at IFA Paris presented their different projects in front of the Future of Walking’s team members. From market study to distribution channels, shoe design and communication campaigns, the students’ projects encapsulated all stages of product creation, all this while keeping in mind the respect for the environment through the use of biodegradable or recyclable materials.

The students were divided into 6 groups of 5 people, good for 6 different projects, which all seduced the team of The Future of Walking. Ultimately, they had to choose a winning project from those presented.

The six projects presented revealed a great diversity in the students’ approach concerning the development and commercialization of these new sneakers. The common thread was sustainability and the matters addressed were about the promotion of “slow fashion”, reduction of the carbon impact as well as the development of lines of products based on gender fluidity.

All the teams presented successful projects for which the students had thought about every detail: design, supply, pricing policy, launch and marketing, distribution and customer relationships.

After a long and difficult deliberation, the Future of Walking’s team decided to choose two winners from the projects presented. That’s how Breathe and Aeres were eventually chosen. Breathe made a very strong impression with its booth and its marketing policy, presenting a concept that is really in tune with the vision of The Future of Walking.

For Aeres, it was more the product itself – easy to produce and with an easily incorporated filter system – in which the team saw a lot of potential.

For more information on the course followed by the students who worked on this project Bachelor Fashion Marketing