Store shelves are increasingly crowded with footwear made with knitted uppers.
What comes to your mind when you hear the word “knitwear?” Is it grandma’s hand-made sweaters with a personalized monogram at the front? Or is it the asymmetrical hat that you made as your first knitting project?
Knit uppers have been a real revolution for the footwear world and are the result of years of research at the level of machinery and technology that can produce them, yarns, design and production processes.
What Are Knit Shoes?
An assortment of outerwear such as sweaters, gloves, and hats, has always dominated knitwear. Then came knit shoes.
Fabrics, or textiles, are a miracle material for footwear designers! With an infinite variety of weaves, knits, colors, patterns, and special features, textiles have a special place in footwear design.
The Main Benefits
The upper is a crucial part of a shoe that serves a variety of functions: it must fit perfectly to be comfortable, but it must also support the foot during walking. It needs to be stiffer in some places to protect the foot from impact, but it is best if it allows the foot to breathe.
Let’s start with the comfort that a knit upper provides:
it adapts perfectly to the foot, promoting a state of comfort, lightness and breathability. In addition, the upper is a single piece, which does not create stress on the foot thanks to the total absence of seams, except for the back one on the heel, which is unavoidable to close the model. What’s more: in the upper itself can already be created the channels for the passage of the closure and the respective eyelets. In this way, the shoe is really a whole, a single piece that guarantees a comfortable, high-performance fit.
Knit offers an endless choice of textures to create exclusive and innovative moods. And the level of customization goes much further thanks to embroidery, high frequency, digital printing and thermo appliqué.
At the sustainability level, knit offers a considerable cut in processing waste that almost always also translates into disposal costs.
Disadvantages of Knit Shoes
It is also worth noting that knit shoes have drawbacks. They can be costly to produce.
Cleaning your knitted shoes will also take a significant amount of time.
