Project Overview

POPO Kids' Lightweight Running Shoes enable excellent cushioning and resilience with the industry-first spherical hollow outsoles to help alleviate foot pressure, so this product is suitable for daily outdoor sports and activities. The novel and interesting spherical hollow outsoles and spaceship-inspired appearance make this product attractive, stimulating children's imagination and desire for exploration. The upper uses sustainable and eco-friendly materials in a complex 3D woven structure for outstanding breathability and comfort, reducing carbon emissions and contributing to sustainable development.

Organisation

ZHE JIANG SEMIR GARMENT CO.,LTD

Team

Qin Rongcheng, Que Changhao

Project Brief

This product features the industry-first spherical outsoles, which help distribute the strain on feet through quick deformation and rebounding, enabling exceptional cushioning and resilience to avoid ankle sprain. Coupled with the hollow design, it enjoys enhanced buffering capacity to lower the risk of injury during sports. It improves the visual and touch experience while stimulating kids' imagination and desire for exploration, making it both functional and interesting.
The upper incorporates sandwich mesh fabric whose holes facilitate ventilation to ensure feet are dry and cozy. The industry-first kids' anti-mold and anti-bacterial insole guarantees excellent sterilization to reduce odor and keep feet hygienic. Additionally, the upper is wrapped with over 60% TPU membrane for better support and protection, preventing sports injuries and ensuring exceptional performance.

Project Innovation/Need

This product features bubble outsoles inspired by spherical elements, which are common in children's growth environments. Based on optimization year by year, it adds a hollow structure design in the heels while inheriting the precedent spherical outsoles for enhanced cushioning and resilience to ensure more comfort and less strain, making it suitable for daily sports scenarios. This interesting structural design evokes kids' curiosity and imagination, which is entertaining and educational.

Design Challenge

Children between the ages of 3 and 12 are active and love to run and jump or participate in outdoor activities with their families, so shoes with high performance and suitable for daily sports scenarios are preferred by this group. Cushioning was one key factor for a comfortable shoe, and we hoped to create a sole close to a new supercritical material. To this end, we developed a highly elastic and cushioning material through rigorous research and serious testing according to the market needs. The hollow structure design in the heels increases the physical cushioning and resilience. It also helps reduce the weight of the sole to make it lighter. We minimize R&D costs, improve production efficiency, and achieve our goal of creating an eye-pleasing, well-structured, wearable, and affordable children's shoe.

Sustainability

The upper utilizes eco-friendly recycled polyester fiber made from recycled PET bottles rather than petrochemical fibers, reducing energy consumption, carbon emissions, and plastic pollution during production. In addition, these recycled PET bottles improve the economic value of waste products, creating more jobs for the recycling industry and boosting the green economy.