Entry Level Qualification 

12

Career Fields 

Arts & Design

For Specially Abled 

Career Entrance Exam 

AIEED, IICD UG, IICD PG

About Career 

1. As a Footwear Designer, you will mainly be involved in the designing of leather or non-leather (plastic, wood, jute, rubber, leather substitutes, etc.) footwear. You may be involved in the manufacture of high street fashion shoes, consumer footwear, catwalk shoes, sports (football boots), action (training or trekking shoes), medicated or orthopedic footwear for customers with leg or foot deformities.

2. Firstly, you will have to make patterns and sketches manually or over software or maybe both. You need to study drawings, be involved in preparing drawings, or choosing materials. You have to come up with practical and creative designs for shoes. You have to design and redesign your ideas testing with different colors, patterns, structures, and materials. You have to research styles and trends to develop innovative yet rational ideas.

3. You will have to work in a team with other designers. You will be making prototype mock-ups or samples to present the purpose, relevance, utility, and aesthetics of your workpieces. You may have to conduct quality checks and monitor production too while supervising the growth and development of your design.

4. Travelling may also be required for this role and you may also have to present your designs for product launches or fashion shows. You may have to suggest product and quality improvements while scrutinizing projects and undertakings if your designs are lawfully protected in some other country too or if you work with an international manufacturer.

Key Roles and Responsibilities

As a Footwear Designer, you will be engaged with one or more of the following roles and responsibilities: -

1. Forming and developing ideas, concepts, color forecasts, and form generation for different types of gender-neutral or gender-specific footwear.

2. Creating and building relevant designs, patterns, drawings, and sketches as per developed ideas, manually or over software.

3. Working with other footwear/fashion designers and conducting expansive research to deliver project-specific client-specific or season-specific workpieces.

4. Creating test footwear (prototypes or mock-ups or samples) to portray the purpose, relevance, utility, and aesthetics of your ideas and thoughts.

5. Conducting quality checks, supervising production, and monitoring its growth and development to ensure appropriate representation of your designs.

6. Studying and examining the needs of different consumer groups, climatic changes, upcoming trends, popular choices, etc. to design and redesign both conventional and unconventional footwear types.

7. Attending marketing meetings to display your design illustrations and help marketing personnel, as well as the management, decide on proper and effective pricing.

Career Entry Pathway 

Class 10 all subjects as per the scheme of studies - Class 11-12 with any subject as per the scheme of studies – Bachelor degree courses.

After completing Class 10 all subjects as per the scheme of studies then Class 11-12 with any subject as per the scheme of studies, you can go for B. Des. (Bachelor of Design).

After completing Class 10 all subjects as per the scheme of studies then Class 11-12 with any subject as per the scheme of studies, you can go for B. Des. (Bachelor of Design. Then you can go for a master's program like M. Des (Master of Design).

Required Qualification & Competencies 

After Class 11-12, you can go for:

1. B. Des

2. BBA

3. B. Tech

After graduation, you can go for:

1. M. Des

2. MBA

3. M.F.M

4. M.FTech

5. M.Tech

Various private/public vocational training establishments across India offer related courses on:

1. Footwear Maker

2. Footwear Design & Technology

3. Footwear Engineering & Technology

4. Leather Goods Maker

5. Sports Goods Maker (Leather)

6. Finished Leather Maker

7. Leather Design

8. Leather Technology

Competencies Required

1. You should have an interest for Artistic Occupations. Artistic occupations mostly involve working with creative ideas, art, and designs. These occupations involve abstract or conceptual thinking, and creative self-expression and often do not follow any set processes or rules for getting things done.

2. You should have an interest in Enterprising Occupations. Enterprising occupations involve taking initiative, initiating actions, and planning to achieve goals, often business goals. These involve gathering resources and leading people to get things done. These require decision-making, risk-taking, and action orientation.

3. You should have an interest in Realistic Occupations. Realistic occupations involve more practical and hands-on activities than paperwork or office work. Realistic occupations often involve physical activities for getting things done using various tools and equipment. 

4. You should know Creative Design - Knowledge of various techniques, methods, and specifications for creating and developing designs for various products like animation, graphics, web, user interfaces of digital devices, photography, etc.

5. You should have Critical Thinking Skills- analysis of complex situations, using logic and reasoning to understand the situations and take appropriate actions or make interpretations and inferences.

6. You should have Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or innovative ideas about a given topic or situation or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.

7. You should have Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with several ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).

8. You should have Arm-Hand Steadiness - The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.

9. You should have Manual Dexterity - The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.

10. You are mostly impulsive in your actions and behavior.

11. You are always imaginative in most situations.

12. You act independently sometimes but do not do so at some other times.

13. You prefer to experience new things and have new experiences sometimes.

Career - Job Opportunities & Profiles 

Some of the corporate or public sector factories, workshops, and firms such as Bata, Ajanta, Leather World, Relaxo, Adidas, Nike, Reebok, Jimmy Choo, and Alexander Mc. Queen, Rosso Brunello, Burberry, Sketchers, Metro shoes, Clarks, etc. that will require your services to operate in industries.

​​​​​​​Specialisation Tracks In This Career

1. Fashion / Consumer Footwear Designer

Fashion / Consumer Footwear Designers work towards developing footwear for high street fashion (including catwalk models) or consumer demands following local trends. Designers who create catwalk models are usually independent designers with their footwear labels. Consumer footwear designers may work for corporate footwear manufacturers.

2. Sports / Action Footwear Designer

Sports / Action Footwear Designers generally work for footwear labels like Adidas, Woodland, Sketchers, etc. dedicated to manufacturing-focused footwear designed to face unusual conditions like high speeds, irregular terrain, high levels of moisture, etc.

3. Orthopedic / Medicated Footwear Designer

Orthopedic / Medicated Footwear Designers create footwear for customers with leg or foot deformities or related medical conditions that render them unfit to wear general consumer designs.

Career Growth

1. From entry-level job positions as a Footwear Designer, you will grow up to roles like Senior Footwear Designer, Production Line Manager, Chief Designer, Design Lead, Creative design head, etc.

2. If you have your own production or design line already set up, you may witness decent to high growth, set up more physical retail outlets, launch your online retail platforms, sell personal styling assistance packages to media celebrities for their public appearances, etc. Most successful footwear designers today have their couture footwear lines as lavishly paying corporate jobs do not suit creative minds in the long run.

Salary Offered  

1. Salaries vary according to job profiles and the kind of facilities you get to work at.

2. If you graduate from a premier institute, at the entry level you may expect about Rs. 30, 000- Rs. 50,000 per month.

3. Otherwise, in entry-level jobs: You may get about Rs. 10,000 – Rs. 20,000 or more per month.

4. Salaries increase with your work experience and as you get promoted.

5. After having 1-6 years of experience, you may expect about Rs. 12,000 – Rs. 25, 000 per month or more.

6. After having 6-12 years of experience, you may get about Rs. 20,000 – Rs. 60, 000 or more per month.

7. In senior-level jobs, with 12-20 years of work experience, you may expect to get about Rs. 35,000 – Rs. 1, 00, 000 or more per month.

8. If you can set up your personal footwear boutique or bespoke production line to provide sales and services related to this field, you can expect much more in terms of returns.

Monthly Earnings In Indian Rupee

1. Entry level: 0 - 2 years of work experience

2. Junior Level: From 1 to 12 years of work experience

3. Mid Level: From 5 to 20+ years of work experience

4. Senior Level: From 10 to 25+ years of work experience (there could be exceptions in some high-end technical, financial, engineering, creative, management, sports, and other careers; also shortly, people will reach these levels much faster in many careers and some careers, these levels will have no meaning as those careers will be completely tech skill driven such as even now, there is almost no level in a Cyber Security Expert’s job)

Famous Personalities 

Not Available

Work Activities 

1. Creative thinking - Developing new ideas, concepts, innovative solutions to problems, newer ways of getting things done, designing products and services, creating works of art and craft, etc.

2. Getting Information and learning - Observing, hearing, reading, using computers, or otherwise obtaining information and learning from it.

3. Updating and using relevant knowledge - Keeping updated with the latest knowledge relevant to your fields of work and use the relevant knowledge in getting things done.

4. Operating machines, equipment, devices, systems, and processes - Using various methods and techniques to operate machines, equipment, devices, systems, and processes in industrial and other settings.

5. Inspecting equipment, systems, structures, and materials - Inspecting equipment, systems, structures, and materials to ascertain quality, performance, defects, causes of errors, etc.

6. Using computers for work - Using computers for day-to-day office work; using computer software for various applications in day-to-day professional work; entering data and processing information; for writing.

7. Performing physical activities - Performing physical activities that require the use of your arms and legs and moving your whole body, such as climbing, lifting, balancing, walking, stooping, and handling materials.

8. Handling and moving objects and materials - Using hands or otherwise using physical strength to handle and move objects and materials; maneuver, install, lift, place, manipulate, etc.

9. Communicating with co-workers and others - Communicating with people in writing, verbally or otherwise inside your workplace and various other people who have professional relationships with your place of work including vendors, government officials, etc., or with people at large.