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| Shoemaker |
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I want to work designing and developing running shoes and its technologies. Im interested in the technical/scientific part, so industrial design and similar careers are not what Im looking for. |
| dingle |
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Marketing. |
| matE student |
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Your'e joking, right ? There's no science involved in shows. It's all hit and miss craftsmanship done in red China. The U.S. only has cheap sales offices with a dummy CEO. The shadow shoguns are in Beijing and Shanghai. |
| Queasy |
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See if there's a mechanical engineering major at Oregon. Get some design internships at Nike. |
| Azaleas |
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I saw a job posting for shoe design once. It seemed to be much more focused on the product design/artistic side, though I'm sure someone must be doing mechanical analysis for them. |
| of red |
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fashion design or design & development to be specific |
| McFlounder |
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dude it is all about marketing and has nothing to do with the technical/scientific. shoe companies will find the research to back up whatever shite they choose to spin for that product cycle. nike and all other companies have spun everything from 2 inch air soles to the ultra minimal. as long as they can slap their logo onto something, sell 10 million and make their quarterly goals, they don't give a fook. get a degree industrial design, ME, or similar ... but don't get the notion that "science" really goes into running shoes. |
| Shoemaker |
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Its true that I was a little bit surprised at how little research and scientific development there is in certain companies, however I do know that Asics has in Japan several engineers working on their shoes. |
| Crapster McScrooge |
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Pick something more broad you'll like just in case your interests change |
| understand this fact |
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the materials only cost 50 cents per shoe pair. thus, they make the shoes and let the customers test the shoes. if complaints come back they cancel the product. it's hit and miss. microsoft does the same. i.e. they let the customers test and when they bitch to holy hell they get some poor russo-mongol clown in moscow to fix the software for $1 per hour. |
| McFlounder |
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RE: Asics - that sounds about right. I hate to sound harsh but that is the reality of the shoe companies. i have a friend who has worked as an exec at 3 companies - for the most part, they are all the same. hype, sell, meet quarterly goals. engineering comes into play in designing a new production line or facility that allows the company to save 5 cents on each shoe manufactured.
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| ronner |
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Look into some smaller shoe companies to see about opportunities. I have a friend who owns a running store and he's stocking shoes that are made by some small company in Utah. He hates nike and bigger companies and is always trying out shoes from smaller companies. They are some out there trying to do things the right way. Dig around to see if a company is doing anything that might be more interesting than nike. |
| agree |
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I have no basis to evaluate posters' claim about other majors, but of the three listed I would say materials engineering. I have a BS and MS in mechanical engineering (which I bring up simply to prove that I have some idea of what I'm talking about) and I don't think mechE is the way to go for what you want. Physics is too theoretical, and since it seems like shoe companies put a lot of focus on materials for the shoes, that would be the best way to go. Now, if you HAD to choose mechE for some reason, it would still be ok, but given the choice between the two I would recommend matE. |
| Buy a pair and you know |
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There's no need for degreed engineers or physicists in the no-tech cheap Chinese shoe industry aka Nike. You will have to get a job elsewhere. They just copy Asics. |
| Another MechE |
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I don't know how directly this sort of stuff translates to shoe design, but a number of my ME peers were/are working in biomed, things like prosthetics and replacement joints. And the dude who said physics is too theoretical, not exactly true...physicists (at least the smart ones, which is most of them from a decent program) are very adaptable and can be quite good in a wide variety of technical fields. They don't all end up searching for the Higgs. |
| materials eng here |
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As a practicing materials engineer (BS, MS), I don't think Nike or Asics employ the type of research or lab teams you might expect for companies of their size. I suspect much of the shoe design is dictated by creatives (i.e. the emphasis is how it looks, performance and choice of materials is secondary). I can't think of the field name, but there is a discipline that works with physics of the human body, stuff like analyzing a runner's stride. You'd never learn that in a traditional materials science curriculum. I'm not in polymers, but there are wonderful cutting edge opportunities in that field (shoe design is not one of those opportunities). That doesn't mean there isn't a need for or careers in running shoe design, just that the researchers teaching your polymers classes probably do not care much about the midsole of a Nike. Textile studies also exist and would be extremely relevant to the shoe/apparel industry. |
| doctor L |
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you're probably better off studying biomechanics or something and using that to create a niche for yourself. |
| BioMechanist |
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Biomechanics seems to be the best fit for shoe design. Force platform stuff, center of mass, etc. The main thing is to get an "in" via internships. Build up some money during the school year & then offer to intern for free wherever you can doing related work that you're interested in. If they'll pay you: bonus. |
| agree |
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Based on what the previous few posters have said, I would agree with biomechanics over matE. It's rarely a separate major, and I think it's usually a concentration within mechanical eng. (at least it was at my school). So that's something to look for when you are looking at programs. As for my earlier claim that physics was too theoretical, I admit I mispoke. What I meant to say was that majoring in engineering would probably give more relevant knowledge in one's freshman/sophomore years that you could use for internships during school. I don't know that much about a complete degree program for a physics major though, so I could be off-base on this. |
| heres the deal yo |
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ive done work in the industry, there is a lot more to it than most people think. you could be involved in the design process with a degree in physics, mech/matrl engineering, materials science, chemistry, product design, exercise science/phys, sports studies, marketing, business...the list goes on. each one just plays a different role. there are several departments that are involved. the main ones are (and their roles): Marketing - present product, choose colors, figure out how many, etc. Developers - organization, work w/ marketing and product designers to fit need Engineers - produce new compounds, etc for parts of shoe Product Designers - put parts together, make visually appealing, and functional for user Sport Science PhDs - test products (foam, etc) to be effective for user so whichever part of that process sounds the most appealing, go with that. |
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