They are part of the heritage of the Museo dello Scarpone that the deterioration of the materials risks losing forever: this is how the digitization project was born
MONTEBELLUNA. There are Nike’s famous Air Jordan 2, then Alpinestars’ Kenny Roberts motorcycle boots, the only existing prototype of the racing shoes made for Pietro Mennea by MGM with the champion’s own brand, you can continue with the autographed Diadora by Bjorn Borg: all shoes that are part of the heritage of the Scarpone Museum and that the deterioration of the materials risks losing forever. From this consideration was born the digitization project that brings together the Museum Foundation, ITS Cosmo, Design & Develop.
The latter has created a new software, the Botcha 3D, with the Foundation and Its Cosmo the pilot project has started and, thanks to the work of five interns, these first historical shoes have been digitized in 3D, which risked being lost because plastic was deteriorating.
In fact, the Scarpone Museum has a very rich archive that tells the story of the sportsystem: shoes in natural materials until the eve of the Second World War, sports and winter sports shoes made of synthetic materials from the 1960s onwards, and then 4 thousand expired patents. , catalogs of footwear companies, even those that no longer exist, degree theses. A very rich archive that needs to be preserved over time.
It started with the products, those in plastic that have shown signs of deterioration, it will then continue with the creation in 3D of footwear that no longer exists starting from the patent drawings. Final goal not only to digitally transfer an archive to be able to preserve it, but to test this new software to make it a tool for designers to produce new models.
And the students have already tried it, working digitally on footwear and proposing new models. For example, they transformed Pippo Inzaghi’s football boots into celebratory shoes for the 2020 European Championships and so they did with other champions’ shoes by adding designs, components and more.
In the creation of these digital twins, the students did an intense work of both historical and technical analysis, gathering information on the materials used and the techniques used in the production through the consultation of vintage catalogs, archival research and personal testimonies of designers and technicians of the manufacturing companies. A first use of some of the digital twins will be put in place already at the end of this month at the Iuav Product Design department: in a creative workshop some of these iconic shoes will be taken as a starting point, digitally breaking them down and proposing them in a contemporary key.
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