Berke Icten, Chairman of TASD, invited Matthew to Istanbul to keynote this year's global Footwear Congress, where more than 500 leaders from the world's leading shoe manufacturers met to discuss the future of their industry. As Matthew pointed out, footwear is the only industry that sells to every individual on the planet: everyone has at least one pair of shoes, but not everyone has a credit card, a smartphone, or even electricity or water.
In a keynote titled The Future of Footwear he traced the history of this iconic industry, then showed how emerging technologies are changing how shoes are designed, manufactured and recycled. He explored how companies could redesign their business models and use shoes to help predict people's health, and set out the new EU ESG and reporting directives coming into force in 2024.
"Everyone in the world has at least one pair of shoes, but not everyone has a credit card, a computer, a smartphone, or even electricity or water. This is an industry like no other."Matthew Griffin, Istanbul, April 2024
He also covered the circular economy, new materials for performant and sustainable footwear, on demand 3D printing and robotic manufacturing, virtual reality design tools, and the hunt for the ultimate one size fits all, infinitely recyclable miracle material.
He closed on recycling. With only a fraction of shoes recycled and billions of pairs going to landfill every year, and with soles among the most complex kinds of apparel to recycle, he showed the latest recycling breakthroughs and urged the footwear and recycling industries to work together so that, eventually, none of the shoes we buy end up in landfill.
