We regularly invent, design, and engineer products to meet CONSUMER needs. But we’ve never been asked to design or invent to meet LOCAL needs. We thought we should take it upon ourselves to do so – starting with a shoe, one of the first industries to leave our state.
Near the beginning, there was the Cobbler. This one-stop shop combined customization, ergonomics, just-in-time manufacturing and customer service to create good products that were integral to local cultures. The problem was that it took 3-4 hours to make a shoe.
Utilizing mass production techniques, net assembly time of shoemaking was reduced to about an hour and fifteen minutes. However this division of labor has created a race to the bottom that neglects our economy and disrupts our environment.
There are now a myriad of digital technologies that have allowed us to completely rethink the way we make shoes – combining the best of cobbler and mass production techniques.
We have now created a proprietary technology that can make shoes in less than 15 minutes, opening up better customization, service, and more interesting jobs. Bringing on-demand assembly shops to downtowns across NC allows us to reestablish manufacturing into local culture. With pioneering Design for Disassembly (D4D), we will drive a new supply chain that will help make NC landfill-free.
Having invested years of research and lots of resources into intellectual property development and prototypes, we are currently looking for partners to help us commercialize this project.