Five talented designers from five different countries started their journey on the Design Challenge in October 2020. Their goal was to create shoes for the high-end of the fashion industry, with an emphasis on the sustainability of their products, and with leather as hero of the shoe. Guided by the expertise of the Arsutoria School in Milan they presented their final prototypes in May. The jury called out Hommy Diaz from the United States as the winner.

Footwear collection with Zeology Leather

The challenge for the designers was to create a shoe collection consisting of 6 styles in total with chrome-free and sustainable tanned leather. Their project should be timeless, adaptable to trends and time and according to new social and environmental standards. All subsidiaries of Royal Smit & Zoon have played their part in delivering sustainable leather, Nera for the tanning, Smit for the retanning and Codyeco for the finishing. The leather articles are tanned with Zeology.

Read more about The Design Challenge