Footwear Design. The paradox of "tailored shoe" in the contemporary digital manufacturing systems

This paper aims to describe the scenario of the contemporary footwear sector, giving a perspective to the product design methodological approaches in the context of the so called 4.0 Industry standards. To do this the text proposes the description of practical experimentations carried out focusing on cad-cam design and cnc production methods. The digital design and manufacturing processes (from the 3d scanning of the foot to the shoe last definition, from the style concept to the virtual parametric prototype of the shoes, from the definition of all the components to the final production) address from the one hand the advanced production methods supported by the enabling technology, from the other hand the renew of the traditional hand made production for the small and custom made series. Tradition and innovation aims to enable new cultural approaches to the made in Italy standards and new competitiveness keys for the footwear industry.