OΔ+ - 'shoes that bloom' - interview with Owner

For my most recent MA project of creating fully bio-degradable, highly desireable shoes, I interviewed Christiaan Maats, Founder and Owner of OΔ+ and found his appraoch and replies so inspiring that I decided to publish them here.

1. Please tell me more about how Oat Shoes came to life: what was the

initial idea behind it and how was the journey to becoming a real

product with a team of people?

I came up with the concept in 2008 during my graduation project for my Industrial Design master. I had researched  ‘Storytelling through Product Design’ in Sydney, Australia and I wanted to tell my own story with a product. I developed the story of OAT Shoes to reunite people with the cycles of nature: in everything that ends lie the seeds of new beginnings. Whether those are flowers, a new product or even a new idea. 


Sustainable shoes were sparse back then, often very ugly and based on recycling, making them cumbersome to get rid of: once you've worn out your shoes, you have to find a box and an address to send them to and then ship them off, without really knowing or seeing what happens to the shoes. To me it seemed too much trouble and too little fun. I thought: I want shoes that look good and I want to be able to just throw them out in the organic waste bin. Or better yet: I want to be able to bury them and have flowers grow out. Then they're really part of nature and you become part of nature's cycle.

We went through several design stages, learning to use the materials, exploring production methods, finding people who could make the shoe and believed in the concept, talking to experts in various fields. We've explored and learned so many things on so many levels, telling the whole story would take a book!

2. What motivated you to make a pair of sustainable shoes? And why did
you choose bio-degradability (as opposed to other sustainable values)?

I guess I'm impatient by nature. I had a clear vision of what I believed the future should look like and didn't see anyone doing it, so I decided to do it myself in stead of wait for it to happen. I chose biodegradability because it's the most intuitive way to link back to nature, and it's the easiest way to get rid of a product: you just chuck it out. Like I explained earlier: recycled products often need  to be brought somewhere or sent off to some factory where you lose site of what happens to them. When you bury something you're in direct touch with nature and you get a great reward: new life. Aside from that: recycled soles are still toxic. Biodegradable ones are not.

3. Why specifically sneakers; what influenced your design?
Are you consdiering expanding your range to producing more
fashion-driven shoes? Or bags?

Sneakers are a personal preference: I love to wear them. I wanted to create shoes that everybody could and would want to wear and I think sneakers provide the biggest audience. 


To introduce the concept of OAT Shoes, I wanted to offer a complete collection of sneakers based on classic models: a high-top, a chukka, a tennis classic and what became a casual weaver/boat shoe cross-over. The clear-cut, clean designs contrast geometric lines with the organic qualities of the materials, which give the sneakers their unique look and feel. I designed the Virgin Collection to be a presentation of the shoes in their purest, most basic form, using only white and natural hemp shades for the upper complemented by the colorful soles that symbolize the four elements. It is the point of departure for future creations, a blank canvas that invites people to wonder about other possibilities and future incarnations of the concept.   


The new Autumn collection has a more minimalistic look and features deep-toned autumn colors. It's a more sophisticated style, so we are definitely evolving the style and looking at new possibilities. We've also developed a new bag: a leather shopper based on the classic plastic bag and we've got a bunch of products on the list to be developed. 

4. What about finding fully bio-degradable materials and joining
techniques - how much of a challenge was it?

Very big: the biggest challenge was not using glue, because shoes are litterally stiff with glue. Also using the hemp canvas was a big challenge. Making a shoe purely by stitching it is very hard and it asks a lot of the seamstresses.

5. Can you talk about the technical aspects of materials and joining?
Or is it a secret? (If it is, don't you believe this knowledge is
better off shared to create a more sustainable world for everyone e.g.
Nike's Green xChange?)

It's no secret: we stitch. We do have some creative solutions up our sleeve which we don't reveal. While I do believe in sharing the knowledge, the difficulty with being a small brand is that when you do reveal all your techniques, it makes it easier for the big boys to push you out of the market. That's why we're a bit hesitant to tell absolutely everything. However, we are working to get it all out in the open in the future and get everyone who wants to involved in the development of new products. Aside from that we do offer advice to individual designers and starting entrepreneurs to get them going. (so if you need specific advice, let us know!)

6. What was the reaction of people when you were developing you shoes
(sceptical or interested?)? 

Actually people almost always responded enthusiastically to the concept, be it with slight disbelief. Everybody understands the premise, although they do often have questions as to how we achieved it.

When we were developing the shoes, people from the industry always reacted with disbelief: 'it can't be done' was the general reaction. It feels quite good to prove them wrong!


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Dressed Integrity - An exhibition of creative fashion practitioners from the Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås

>>Dressed Integrity is the second project dealing with integrity that developed at the Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås. With a varied focus on design methodology, identity, experiments of shape and material, processes, sketching and cutting, the exhibition will show both finished products and work in progress, which addresses the question of integrity. 6 PhD students in practical design research are participating with their own perspective of the theme Dressed Integrity. <<

(Text taken from Invitation)

I was also fortunate enough to be invited to the symposium at my college which was hugely inspiring; so inspiring that with the book I received in my hand I managed to get on the tube going to wrong direction and stay on it for 3 stops until I realized where I was (I must add that this has never happened to me in y entire life! I will write more about this soon and as soon as I get the copy of that book in my hands again and can write about it. Busy busy times with the MA (really loving the course though).

Event: Myths and Realities: Sustainable Lifestyles: Great Theory, Impossible Practice

This was an event me and some of the MA Fashion Environment girls attended last night at the british libary. A bit exhausted now to write much in details about it but the jist of it was:

our unsustainable behaviour is formed by habits. These may seem deeply engrained but they do evolve and change.  These changes may be radically influenced by technology but in sometimes unpredictable ways e.g. mobile phones & texting. Technology cannot be seen as the solution to solve our sustainability problems, that would be a 'mission impossible' as Ian Christie called it; social innovations however would make it a 'mission not quite impossible'. These innovations would include changing the framework and social structures which underpin our habits. Just trying to change individual habits is not effective with the current socio-technological infrastructures & cultural conventions.

I also found the different definitions of habit interesting (quite relevant to a 'shoe addiction' project we're working on with Prof. Helen Storey). Habits can be split into 'addicition' or 'routine'. The unsustainable consumption habit has been put into the 'addiction' bracket. Professor Dale Southerton stated that this is very unhelpful in addressing sustainability as it puts emphasis on the individual and views the habits as pathological. Whereas viewing the habit as a routine means the behaviour is the problem but is also the solution.

Cartoon as presented by Ian Christie & found again on this website

The Chair was Drs Astrid Wissenburg, Director of Partnerships and Communications, ESRC and the speakers  Ian Christie, Research Fellow and Coordinator, Sustainable Lifestyles Research Group, Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey and Professor Dale Southerton, Director Sustainable Practices Research Group, University of Manchester.

Micro Modular Fashion

This is my last term project: Micro Modular Fashion

Inspiring thinkers

We are lucky enough to have some lectures with some great thinkers of sustainability and design. Kate Fletcher is a researcher at LCF and regularly has sessions with us. On the first one she asked us to read this article in preparation for it. It's on the state of the ecology today and really puts things into perspective. Her book is definitely my bible when it comes to sustainable fashion. Been reading loads around the topic and hope to post about some but the book club on ethical fashion forum for reviews!

   

Only yesterday we there was an inspiring talk (marathon) located at St. Martins and part of our Uni-wide green week. Jonathan Chapman was a keynote speaker; I soaked up his book emotionally durable design, so seeing him in flesh was quite something. Glad to be able to say that he's a good speaker. He recently did some consulting for Puma who seem to be addressing sustainability recently... might write a post later on what I think about quantifying and managing sustainability (read: not too keen on that idea).  Carole Collet was also there, who I'd heard at the interweave event at the Victoria and Albert museum; she helped set up the MA textile futures at CSM and in researching into biological structures for textiles. Amazing really. Some other PhD students spoke & I was hugely inspired (kind of made me want to do one?! we'll see).

I recently discovered, pretty much by chance, openwear. It was after visiting this website that I made myself a pair of slippers for the chilly winter days. Have a browse and you'll see why. This initiative seems to be set up partly at least by Becky Earley, who was also at the talk and set up TEDs Ten. This is something that will really help me with my current essay actually and for which I will be interviewing Tim Parsons on Friday which I am excited about. Talking about essays... ciao for now

RCA MA WIP

And now the Royal College of Art MA work in progress. (Chronologically the wrong way around, went to this one first). Some amazingly innovative creations.

Again, I seemed to be drawn to geometric shapes.

   

This is similar to what I did for a term 1 project! Love the use of the lace here.

CSM MA WIP

Now some piccies from the Central Saint Martins Masters work in progress.

Sorry the quality's not amazing. And as I went to see them a little while ago, I don't actually have all the names/courses to go with them but if I wanted to look them up, they will be on the website soon I recon!

Us MA Fashion Environment girls noticed that quite a few parallels existed in the addressed topics: environmental degradation, social isolation, physical inactivity, ecological impacts of textiles, emotional durability, user engagement.

This is the new kings cross building. Really love it, so glad we can use the library & learning space there! Although I've heard it actually has less space for the students to work in, surprisingly.

MA Textile Futures

An altenative to fur: textiles created by brushing animals then sewing the hair onto a base fabric. Apparently she had a discussion with a girl on my course who is into second hand and recycling leather (they agreed to disagree).

                         

 

Now if this isn't just my kind of thing!

A project to encourage physical activity in a time where we are so inactive in our offices, in front of computers.

 

Natural dyeing project. Her business cards were little droplets too.

Loving the tesselation & geomteric shapes together with the less structured, soft wool.

Textiles inspired by living skin cells. If skin can be bred in petri dishes why not create textile that way?! These skin bits were even edible.

Other MA's

Making eating ice-cream into a ritual.

 (This reminded me of our Kolding project :) )

Ashquarium - the fish will suffer under your smoking habit.

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I liked the folded trays for business cards.