“Form has always fascinated me. The nature of our signature material Microplast® allows us to experiment with new forms and introduce to our Okabashi customers a range of products that meet a variety of lifestyles. We’re always looking to things that we do every day to inspire us, to adapt our experiences to how we design.”—Naomi Wakatake, Chief Designer
“Consumers expectations are shifting in the things they bring into their every day life. They expect a higher level of quality and value. The Okabashi brand was built around those things. Our products marry the principles of reflexology and comfort together to deliver an unparalleled product and a strong value. Therefore, our brand has that ability to exist in our customers lives every day.”—Lorenzo Gonzalez, Director, Brand Development
About Our Design Process, Inspiration, Methods
Made in the USA. It’s the way we’ve done business for over twenty years. Our design studios are located aside our manufacturing facility in Buford, Georgia, minutes outside metro Atlanta, Georgia. We’ve assembled a diverse team of designers, from varied backgrounds including sculpture and architecture. Their process begins by looking at our past, and understanding what has been successful with our customers and why. They have found that the practicality and the comfort of our products are two guiding features that start new product development.
From there, they look to our every day experiences small and large to define the context of how our family of products fit into our customers lives. Our team generates countless storyboards that begin to create situations into which our shoes fit. And that creates shoes for the lifestyles around us.
While this process is going on in the actual studio, the design team has a team of consumer advocates that put together the framework for design and trend forecasting. They will report back to the team with their research and help the designers refine their designs more through the eyes of Okabashi customers.
From sketching, our designers move into model making, through traditional methods of clay and new methods of computer rendering. The principles of reflexology guide this next process. Models are sent off for fabrication to create sample molds for our manufacturing team to test to ensure we can deliver the highest quality.
This is our constant, never-ending process of designing new styles.
Tell our designers what you think by sending a note to our Chief Designer, chiefofdesign@okabashi.com.
