The new year rolls around and so do new iterations of the Hydronaut. It starts to actually have it's own unique identity. It started to have soul. Long meetings with our engineer and some late nights with our factory became the norm. I remember one meeting with our engineer/designer - we were talking and he suddenly stops and starts drawing these random lines across the shoe on his laptop. I had no clue what he was doing but I thought maybe he was lost in thought. Little did I know he was drawing our "River Lines" that run across the upper of the silhouette. These lines reminded me of rivers on a map such as the Mississippi, Amazon and Nile River. Somewhere in between those moments they instantly resonated with me as representing the force water has on our lives - it could give our take us away at any given moment. In this case with the Hydronaut - it would give life to an entirely new perspective of footwear.
At this stage, our engineer and I were debating on whether the “water bag” should on cushion the heel of the shoe or should it run full-length. It would costs more and take longer to develop, but honestly, I couldn’t shake the feeling that if we were going to do it then we might as well go all the way (full-length). Funds were already tight, but this was a one shot only type of project – we couldn’t afford to do it over again. It was all or nothing.
We also had to debate on which type of material we could use for our newly discovered “River Lines”. Our engineer decided on a typographical gel print; it was more expensive but I trusted that it would make all the difference once we were in the prototyping phase. If there was one thing I learned during this development process: our engineer never steered us wrong. We debated, but collaboratively and the results were always incredible.
I’m a colorway fanatic and it was always difficult to choose which would be the first three colorways, because there’s no right or wrong answer. We could go clean black, white & grey or we could go with colors that make a bold statement. I eventually went with colorways that personally sparked my interest because the possibilities were endless. Our engineer came up with some incredible color palettes that may or may not ever see the light of day. Take a look at some of those iterations below.
When designing the Hydronaut, it was extremely difficult for me to choose between functionality or just what I thought would be cool or what I was used to. For example, our designer thought we should possibly go with a slip-on model - the idea made sense. It would be extremely easy to throw on and experience walking on water. I'm unsure if it's a cultural thing but slip-ons just didn't feel cool; perhaps on Vans but growing up it felt somewhat cheap. This is the opposite of how I feel this project should be represented. It wasn't a choice that was either right or wrong; just all perspective. Nonetheless, I did decide that traditional laces made sense for the direction we were going in. I wanted something that felt familiar to everyone. The feeling of walking on water would be unique enough. At this stage, we still were not sure any of this will work out. It was sleepless nights wondering if it will all be for nothing.
It's a lot harder than we initially thought to name the H2O cushioning system. We started with using the word cloud because cloud are made of water but then we realized that so many companies utilize the cloud name. It took us about a solid week of coming up with names before we settled on H2prO. Next was deciding where we would put the name onto the silhouette. As you can tell by the below image, that was also difficult.
Colorways are always difficult. Here are some sample colorways our engineer created that are timeless. We can only choose 3 colorways (because that's what I can afford at the moment) to put into our first sample run. These things can always change if we ever decide to produce a full batch run. At the moment, "Dusk" and "Yacht" are extremely promising.
The date is May 11, 2022. We're starting to see some OG upper experimentation. The shape is spot on but its still difficult to get a feel for the entire silhouette at this stage. We're still extremely early in the overall process and a solid prototype is still far into the future. For now, we can only imagine what will become of the Hydronaut. I wanted to keep our logo to a minimum and let the materials and tech speak for itself. Here, we are testing the placement of our Stingray.
The greatest part of this project was watching the actual raw materials become something that was only just an idea when it all began. Every little detail becomes a transformation no matter how small. Although we didn't begin the H2prO water bag just yet, the upper alone has been an incredible amount of work. As our engineer stated, "the first look won't be experiencing the tech, it'll be having amazing design". I'll be honest, I wasn't too focused on design initially, but I'm grateful we spent months perfecting it.
The date is August 17, 2022. We now have a wood model of our water cushioning system and overall midsole. We're still trying to decide if and how the water bag will be fixed into the midsole. It will take up a lot of space and will have to fit perfectly without any movement. So far this looks promising. Although this isn't an official colorway, I'm feeling the faintish pink of the wood midsole. The materials of this upper sample are feeling extremely premium and durable.
August 22 2022. I'm not exactly sure if we discussed this sample upper with our factory or if they took it upon themselves to create this, but it is honestly my favorite upper to date. I can't recall the name but it is a winterized material that I believe is waterproof. This colorway alone is incredibly simplistic but stunning. I'm not sure if this was a factory defect but our Stingray is also reversed on this prototype upper giving is a special touch that no other sample has. Perhaps we will revisit this sample to create a small production run. Stay tuned.
October 28, 2022. This is one of the largest updates so far. We finally have a wood model that gives us a realistic look at how the upper will sit properly within the midsole. We also have an idea of how the H2prO bag will be engineered within the midsole unit. This is also a finalized colorway we decided upon for a sample release. The materials aren't 100% correct at this stage but this is extremely close to what we image the shoe will look like once completed.
November 4, 2022. From wood model to 3D printed. Unfortunately at this moment, I do not get to feel these materials as they are with our factory getting developed as fast as possible. Unfortunately, there were some mistakes made during this 3D printing process so some of the shapes are off. This doesn't take away from the fact that it still came out incredible.
