Blundstone’s boot wins design award

The new 980 Underground Mining Boot was designed after observing work at the mine face.

Tasmania-based Blundstone Australia’s new ‘980 Underground Mining Boot’ has won the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences Award and received the accolade of Best in Category (Product Design – Commercial and Industrial) at the Good Design Awards – Australia’s oldest prize for design and innovation.

The 2015 Good Design Awards Gala Night was recently held in Sydney. Over 700 guests were in attendance to celebrate the best of design and innovation across a broad range of industries and design disciplines. Winners were selected from a record-breaking 370 applications received from around the world.

According to Blundstone chief executive, Steve Gunn, the company worked directly with miners in order to meet their footwear needs. With health and safety being of critical importance to the industry, members of staff reportedly gained firsthand experience of the environment in which miners operate. This enabled Blundstone’s designers to create a purpose-built boot that is marketed as being able to endure the harshest of conditions. Australian mining organisations are said to currently employ around 2.2 per cent of the country’s labour force – a total of some 129,000 people.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 4 of the July/August 2015 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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