Rooted-In

A footwear concept, exploring fashion shoes through the lens of Vera Bradley, using feminist history to guide style direction.

Project Brief

Brand Identity

Market Research

Market research was conducted to understand the white space within Vera Bradley's product lines as well as the competitors who fill their same niche.

Historical Style Analysis

Vera Bradley was founded in 1982 by Patricia R. Miller and Barbara Bradley Baekgaard while at the airport, where they noticed a lack of distinct and colorful luggage. From this gap in the market, the female led brand Vera Bradley was born. Knowing this, feminist history was the basis of inspiration for the footwear collection. 

Popular footwear styles at each point in history were used to form the collection.

Footwear Ideation and Exploration

Historical silhouettes as well as features of Vera Bradley bags can be found in the ideation phase.

Pattern Ideation and Exploration

Part of Vera Bradley's mission is to spark joy in their customers through their bold patterns, so research was conducted on their existing patterns as well as patterns that align with the historical periods in which each shoe takes inspiration from.

Vera Bradley often has two different patterns for the inside and outside of a product, so an outer and inner pattern was developed for the RiOTGrrrl style as it was being developed as a prototype.

Prototyping

Constructing the Final Model

Packaging

Tech Packs and Blueprints

Product Photography