A good number of people pay very close attention to the shoes they wear, day in and day out. They make sure the shoes are not only comfortable but also stylish, matching whatever look you might have going for that day. A bit ironically, however, most people don’t give their shoes a second thought after taking them off. Most of us take special care of the clothes we wear but are content to just leave shoes by the door, in the closet, or anywhere convenient. The lack of care for footwear, however, will have very negative consequences for our feet down the road, so this shoe styler appliance concept tries to envision an easy and convenient way to make sure you’re always starting the day fresh from head to toe.
Designer: Yeounju Lee
Given how we use them, our shoes are bound to get dirtier and more worn out than our clothes. Despite that fact, few of us probably think of proper shoe care beyond airing them out once in a while. That sad state of footwear comes to bite us back, however, when we start to feel uncomfortable in our own shoes, not to mention get irritated or smelly feet from our beloved sneakers. Just like any chore, it isn’t a matter of just laziness but more because of the lack of tools that make such a task easy and efficient.
Shoe styler appliances are starting to enter into people’s consciousness for these exact reasons. We are already making it easier to take care of our clothes using technology, so it’s only fair and perhaps long overdue that shoes finally get the same treatment. Day starter is such a concept and it focuses on not just storing shoes properly but also cleaning them to keep them in tip-top shape for as long as possible.
At first glance, you wouldn’t even be able to tell that the appliance is designed for shoe care. It looks more like a short cabinet with a stylized ridged door. Behind that door is indeed a sort of storage, one that’s designed to keep shoes sanitized and dry. This would help prolong the life of footwear, depending on the type of material, of course. There are different lengths of “sticks” that either hang your shoes up or keep boots straight so that they don’t get deformed over time.
Day starter, however, isn’t just simply storage for shoes. Using the appliance actually starts with the slide-out tray that you step on when you’ve returned for the day. The details of the design are a bit murky, but at some point, the shoes are washed and dried to clean them before storage. There are even bins for water that you’ll have to fill and eventually empty.
The shoe storage also functions as a shelf, particularly for things you might need when going out. It’s the perfect place to put down keys that you’ll pick up again the next day, turning it into that one place you’ll never forget. The design admittedly has some limitations, such as the number of shoes that can be stored inside at the same time. It does, however, bring to mind the importance of caring for footwear, especially given how we critically depend on them to go places.
