In Italy, where COVID-19 has had a massive impact on daily life, Design Italian Shoes (DIS), a start-up specializing in fully customizable, Italian-made footwear, has innovated with an app that scans your feet to allow them to create made-to-measure shoes. And in the spirit of the times, DIS says it will make its technology open to other manufacturers and retailers.
Presently, the app is only available for IOS.
Users only need their Iphone and an A4 sheet, taking three photos of each foot. The technology takes care of the rest.
DIS says the app is the last piece of the puzzle to create a fully digital process where one can get measured, then configure and order the shoes. Only when the ordering process is completed are the data sent to their artisans, who begin making the shoes.
By not having stock and semi-finished products, Andrea Carpineti, CEO of DIS, says there is a 30 per cent reduction in carbon emissions in the production process.
The company claims a 10-day turnaround.
DIS CIO Michele Luconi adds, ‘We have developed two different algorithms. The first carries out the mathematical reconstruction of the user’s foot through photos. The second—it’s the only one on the market—matches the user’s foot with the DIS shoe models, thus recommending the exact size to purchase for each specific model.’
To make the perfect made-to-measure shoe, the app takes 26 measurements of each foot, considerably more than existing apps, says the company.
Francesco Inguscio, CEO of Nuvolab, which has supported DIS, says, ‘This is the best way in which Italian industrial districts can respond to the deep crisis we are going through: by sharing start-ups’ innovations and the know-how of our SMEs to evolve together and thrive in a totally different future from what we had imagined.’