1. Product design
2. Graphic design
3. Material Research
4. Marketing
5. Packaging design
6. Footwear design
USER 
children between 1-9


TEAM
Tomiris Shyngyssova, Grace Knight, Anna Lewis Matson, Briggs Jackson

DURATION

9 months

Lil’ Sprouts: the biodegradable children’s footwear


Project summary:
This project is a two-part endeavor: the construction of shoes using mycelium materials and the creation of communication tools, either in the shoe design or packaging, to instruct the user (parent, guardian, or child) on how to dispose of the shoes at the end of their life.




Challenge ︎


  • How can we reimagine the objects that come into our lives?
  • How can we add a new purpose to objects we treat as consumable goods?
  • How does introducing new technologies to a familiar form change how we interact with it?

Unique Solution ︎


Lil’ Sprouts, biodegradable children’s shoes inspired by applying biodegradable materials to a consumable product and utilizing the material’s capabilities as an opportunity to learn about sustainability and our relationships with objects around us.



Role ︎


  • Creative Director

  • User Experience Researcher

  • Develop the work-like prototype and product material testing.

  • Manage the direction of other creatives from branding to packaging.

Goals ︎


  • Challenge the ways that we think of sustainable products—think beyond an object you acquire to an action you carry out.

  • Create a sustainable product that betters the planet.

  • Challenge fashion to be an experiential learning moment for children.

Outcomes ︎


  • A tested the Lil Sprouts concept with a workable model that included the mushroom technology from Ecovative.

  • The Winning concept was selected for the Forager Fashion Program and will be showcased in their traveling, global mycelium fashion collection.











The power of experiential learning


Experiential learning is a powerful tool that creates new associations and introduces topics that may not have been discussed with more traditional learning methods. When we are children, we explore with questions and our small-scale experiments, making connections that will last forever.









Guiding Questions:


What if the objects we interact with daily could spark conversations about conservation, the planet, composting, and waste?



What if we utilized this "sponge-like" moment to build habits that will better the planet we will grow up in?








(A) User experience


Tasks
︎ Outline the current experience with children’s shoes, isolating the decision-makers, the contributing factors to making a decision, and the options a parent has to dispose of shoes.

︎ Design a new user experience that allows for an alternative outcome for children’s shoes, so they do not pollute

︎ Find moments to reinforce learning and the product’s capabilities.





UNDERSTANDING

Current children’s new shoe experience






UNDERSTANDING + IDENTITFY

Shoe disposal options for after-product life



Pain points

︎ Shoes are rarely passed down to siblings as they can get too worn and develop a strong odor from children’s activities

︎ Families are smaller in size (one to two children) due to the cost of raising and the amount of time needed to parent


Pain points

︎ Donation centers are overwhelmed with used shoe inventory, with many not being reused and instead exported to other countries or ending up in landfills


Pain points

︎ Shoes end up in landfills and either are burned, causing air pollution, or slowly degrade, leeching chemicals into the soil and breaking down into microplastics that make it into the local ecosystems

︎ Families would like not to do this but there are few alternatives to this option for many


Pain points

︎ Due to a large amount of stock available, resell stores rarely purchase used shoes unless they are barely worn or brand new

︎ Online, there is high levels of competition with other resellers

︎ Reselling takes time, which many families do not have due to their busy schedules, making it an undesirable choice











OPPORTUNITY

How Lil Sprouts offers a new option for parents











Lil Sprouts’ product lifespan











(B) Branding 


The Lil’ Spouts brand is about action, not greenwashed aesthetics. To stand out from the pack and match the vibrancy of your child’s curiosity, the Lil’ Sprouts branding sports a vibrant color palette inspired by the flora and an upbeat tempo (bordering on mischievous) when translated into motion.
Tasks
︎ Challenge the typical visual style of sustainability by being the antithesis of “greenwashing” and provide a different visual definition of sustainable products.

︎ Communicate in a fun, playful, and energetic way to connect with children and the energy behind childhood curiosity.

︎ Develop a visual guide that can be easily added to and applied across various areas of textiles and packaging, and shoe product prints, including.



















Translated Motion Branding

(C) Product Modeling



Tasks

︎Experiment with Ecovative’s mycelium foam to test the capabilities of the material and possible ways it can be manipulated to replace petroleum-based materials commonly used in footwear.














PROTOTYPE

Proof of concept


The following design phase was to prototype with a type of mushroom leather supplied by RISD’s Health Fund and made by Muskin. Here, we explored mushroom leather and its material, such as flexibility, durability, and processing.

Very few examples of mushroom leather shoes exist for most of the population. Hence, tests had to be conducted to understand how this material would behave in the shoe form and what alterations would need to be made in the pattern to suit the suede-like material better.











PROTOTYPE

Packaging


Two concepts were explored for the packaging solution for Lil’ Sprouts. The goal of the packaging was to use existing products (e.g., a plant pot or burlap sack mimicking a seed bag) to communicate that these shoes are unconventional and related to the garden or planting.

Since this is not a typical shoe experience, communication through packaging is an excellent opportunity to introduce the user to the particular user experience of Lil’ Sprouts. Drawing inspiration from gardening objects like seed bags and planters, I experimented with various packaging modes that could house the shoes and serve as a storytelling tool.










PROTOTYPING

Works-like model


After testing to better understand the construction of children’s shoes and the unique qualities and limitations of traditional mushroom leathers, I began to look for more biodegradable materials to experiment with. Upon further research, I discovered a design fellowship offered by Forager, a subsidiary of Ecovative, a large-scale mycelium technology company. My proposal to create a working prototype of Lil’ Sprouts was accepted. I began to examine form possibilities with their mushroom foam technology, experimenting with lamination, molding, and quilting the mycelium materials.




Tools used: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe After Effects, sewing machine, Ecovative mycelium foam technology, hemp fabric, blender, moo glue, camera, molding techniques, cobbler techniques




Recognition



Fellow in Forager’s FFAD Program


As a fellow in the Forager FFAD Program, we were given access to Ecovative’s most recent mushroom technology to experiment with various foams, hides, and other mushroom products for my Lil’ Sprouts project. Along with the materials, the fellows also received mentorship and guidance from the Forager team on how to best utilize and strategically design mushroom techno to its strengths.
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