Finding trendy, wide fit women’s shoes online and offline is a challenging activity.
Average size shoe wearers have a range of styles that are not afforded to people with wider feet. Wide shoes are outdated and available in basic styles, colors, and designs. The shoe shopping experience can be demoralizing and frustrating causing these she wearers feel abnormal and not valued by footwear makers. Limited shoe options can also limit a person’s wardrobe choices, in turn, affecting their self-expression. This impacts their self-identity and how they want to be seen in the world.
Wide shoe wearers settling for shoes they consider unattractive or are ill-fitting is a global issue. The impact of this problem includes medical issues such as feet deformities. Retailers providing insufficient wide shoe offerings are also impacted as they may not be top-of-mind for shoppers. Retail employees receiving commission are affected if they don’t have inventory to assist a customer in need.
Although styles have improved over the years, the need for trendy wide width shoes has been an ongoing problem since shoes became a fashion statement. This problem has been observed through current retailers' inventory online and offline, retailer customer reviews, personal experience, conversations, and observations from professional experience in retail.
Solving this problem will create healthier, happier, and more confident people. Also, solving this problem will be a move towards a more inclusive fashion industry.
Parameters
Since all ideas aren’t equal, the pictured bull’s eye diagram is an illustrated representation of what’s important when designing the solution. This isn’t to say the most outer circle isn’t important, it’s part of the solution. Research findings overwhelmingly point towards a solution that provides access to wide shoe wearers. This parameter was placed in the center for this reason. The secondary ring contains parameters based on pain points discovered during participant interviews. The outermost ring contains parameters that address style and size challenges, one style, one size, and caters to modern habits, online shopping.
