Toluwalase Adedipe, a recent University of Houston graduate, won the prestigious Global Footwear Awards. Adedipe’s innovative flyte design, focusing on basketball, football, and rugby sports performance, secured top honors in the student category.
Esteemed judges from Adidas, Nike, and Puma recognized Adedipe’s talent. His design, inspired by biomimicry, delved into nature’s ecosystems and biomechanics, drawing parallels with basketball and court dynamics.
“I want to be a footwear designer for a living, and I would love to be a prominent basketball shoe designer. I am currently putting myself in places or positions where I can be noticed and learn in the industry.”
Toluwalase Adedipe
Adedipe’s meticulous research on dragonflies, butterflies, and geckos influenced distinctive features, such as graphic vein patterns resembling dragonfly wings. Throughout the creative process, Adedipe honed his skills, delving into 3D printing and Blender for visualization and even mastering sewing for prototype development.
Adedipe spoke with the Defender about the work it took to win this award and his hopes for the future.
Defender: What is your background story?
Toluwalase Adedipe : I came to the U.S. as an international student. I came to the US in 2019 and majored in industrial design at the University of Houston. My first two years of school were daunting for me personally because I was never really the creative guy. I was more of the scientific guy. I was good in the sciences, physics, chemistry, and everything else. But I always had a passion for inventing. I remember when I was really young, I told myself that I wanted to be like an inventor, like a crazy scientist. But it seemed like it was just a dream.
So I never really took it seriously and just focused on my education. When I was about to go to college, I decided to research my major. My dad is an architect. Initially, I was gonna go into architecture, but he was trying to tell me to find out if there was anything else that might interest me, so I paid attention to him. And I did a deep dive into different majors relating to design. So I found industrial design, and once I saw what that was about, the kind of innovations surrounding creating products, that was really cool. I came to the US to study.
My first years were just kind of me trying to build up my self-confidence in terms of design, So it was a very rough time because I was always comparing myself to, like, my classmates or people who are just more, I guess, who know themselves as designers a lot more compared to myself. But then, going into my junior year, um, I started to embrace many things. I took a trip back to Nigeria that was, the Christmas of 2021. So, it was almost like a time for me to reset, and I embraced my individuality a lot more.
Going into my senior year, when I worked on my thesis project, which won the award, I knew I wanted to do a project for my thesis project. That was my personality, like coming to life. And personally, I love basketball. I’ve been into basketball, playing basketball for years. I’ve always loved basketball, so doing something relating to basketball was a no-brainer for me. And then I love animals as well. I love nature. I’m just really intrigued and fascinated by that. That was also something I wanted to incorporate into my design.
Defender: Can you share the inspiration behind the Flyte design and how nature influenced your choices?
Toluwalase Adedipe: I actually studied basketball players. I did a lot of research into the biomechanics of basketball, trying to actually understand where I can innovate in, um, terms of a basketball shoe. And I came up with four design goals that I wanted to achieve, mainly traction. You know, improving the traction on the court, the support of the shoe, and the weight. So, make the shoe lightweight but also not sacrifice support. Basic things like that. And also a cushioning to reduce and all those things. So, I am taking my interest in nature and basketball and combining those things.
The first thing that I thought could offer me inspiration regarding the different goals I wanted to achieve. For example, when I was looking at support, I wanted a structure that could offer support in the shoe but also not be too heavy to allow the basketball players to move around and not have them use too much energy on the court. So, I started looking into insects. I looked at bones, like just thinking about the nature that has structure. I thought about insect wings, the shape of those wings. I thought about the structure of bones and how birds specifically can fly, but their bones are strong enough to carry their weight but also light enough where they can actually fly in the air. So, I was just looking at and researching all those things. I ended up finding out that in dragonfly wings, specifically, the structure of their wings allow it’s varying in density.
So wherever it’s denser, it’s a lot more rigid. Wherever it’s less dense, it’s a lot less rigid. And that dynamic could be applied to the shoe. So that was like an inspiration. But that aspect of the shoe, and there’s a lot more, I don’t know if you want me to go into every detail, but then, yeah. Many details go into this nature, timing to the shoe design. There was a whole research phase that spanned roughly two or three months. Then, an ideation and conceptualization phase lasted about five months.
Defender: What were the challenges and breakthrough moments during the design process?
Adedipe: The challenge was creating a unique and functional design, particularly in footwear with predefined expectations. A breakthrough came when a professor suggested imagining a shoe designed by nature, pushing me to think beyond conventional boundaries. This advice helped me create a unique, eye-catching design that merges aesthetics with functionality.
Defender: How did your experience at the University of Houston’s College of Architecture and Design contribute to your success?
Adedipe: The challenging moment for me was creating a new design. We look at shoes every day, so consciously, there’s a way that you want a shoe to look. So, the most challenging thing I wanted to break through in the project was creating a shoe that looked different and eye-catching but also served a function. The breakthrough that I remember was one of my professors who helped me think outside the box. For example, pick any natural inspiration and think about what that shoe would look like. That piece of advice helped me break through the design process and come up with a really unique design.
Defender: What are your f uture goals?
Adedipe: I want to be a footwear designer for a living, and I would love to be a prominent basketball shoe designer. I am currently putting myself in places or positions where I can be noticed and learn in the industry. For example, in November last year, I was accepted into the program with the College of Business and Design and spent five weeks learning under some of the greatest footwear designers in the industry. I’m currently working in a sports apparel company now as an intern. That is my plan.
