New footwear body aims to drive positive future
A new organisation called the ‘Global Footwear Future Coalition’ (GFFC) has been established with the declared goal of ‘uniting the best brains and fiercest talent inside the shoe industry and beyond’. One of the first actions taken by the body was to organise a full-day symposium in London which featured keynote presentations alongside smaller sessions. The Speaker line-up included SATRA’s Nicola Pichel-Juan, who presented one of six ‘provocations’ entitled “Will legislation create a level playing field for the footwear industry?”
According to the GFFC, this event provided a dynamic platform for collaboration between brands, retailers, academics, trade bodies and innovation houses across the global footwear system. Their representatives were able to consider a wider approach to the business of making shoes, while having the opportunity to share knowledge in order to radically drive change.
The GFFC states that its vision is to transition away from fragmented, ‘siloed’ working into a community that interrogates ‘why’, ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘how’ to transform business. It aims to bring together a diverse network of experts to facilitate and share new perspectives for the future of business, creativity, culture, learning and innovation.
“We fully support the GFFC’s crucial mission to drive a redesign of the footwear industry,” commented Minnie Moll, chief executive of the UK’s Design Council. “With a large part of the 330 million shoes bought in the UK each year ending in landfill, there is an urgent need to upskill designers in relevant green design skills and push systemic changes that allow circular business models to become the norm,” she added.
The photograph above shows the recent symposium, which was organised to provide a dynamic platform for industry collaboration.
Publishing Data
This article was originally published on page 3 of the December 2024 issue of SATRA Bulletin.
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