Design Testing

Materials selection testing

by LAURA SHUMAKER April 23, 2014

In parallel with optimizing the shoe's design and patterns, I've been conducting testing to select fabric and adhesives. The adhesive used is critical because it holds the rubber rands and sole to the fabric shoe uppers. Several shoemakers I've spoken with suggested a Renia adhesive over the Barge cement I've been using on prototypes. However, since they mostly work with leather and I plan to make fabric uppers, I set up a rough delamination testing fixture. With this fixture sample swatches of fabric could be glued to rubber and then loaded until failure.

By comparing how much weight (based on the volume of water) swatches could hold, I determined which adhesive was best for the SFT shoes and the optimal procedure for curing the adhesive.

Sample 7 of 12 after testing. Top: felt sewn to a webbing strap to attach to the bucket. Bottom: rubber sample with remnants of glue and felt.