Designer Dupont Little Flying Shoes

DuPont and designer Hu Yilin's "little flying shoes"

The commercialization process of DuPont patented material is full of designers' fantastic ideas.

In early 2011, when designer Hu Yilin first picked up TM Tyvek from his friends, his first feeling was "this is a very big piece of paper".

Te Wei Qiang is indeed a material that looks like two kinds of white paper, but it feels more resilient. From a technical point of view, it is actually a non-woven fabric made of 100% HDPE by flash evaporation. As with most laboratory products, few people know what it can be used to do.

In 1955, when DuPont scientists developed te Wei in the laboratory, it was not clear what specific use it could make. The earliest designers were some fashion designers who used it in the lining of the down jacket. They were used by outdoor sports equipment designers to make waterproof and durable outdoor maps. There were also construction companies, printing houses and medical supplies companies. At present, the most widely used area of special health is the waterproof materials and medical protective clothing of the external walls of the houses in the United States.

It was nearly 20 years from the birth of the laboratory to the acceptance of the market. It took Hu Yilin only 10 months to open up a new market for this material. He made a special shoe with DuPont Weiqiang.

Hu Yilin's inspiration came from a wallet made by his friend to build a material made from te Wei Qiang. Designer At that time, he was addicted to new interests - making shoes and looking for the right materials. The spark was placed in the wallet for 2 months. One day, Hu Yilin went out to run. In order to be light, he put 200 yuan into the wallet and returned to the cupboard on the porch. The wallet soon became the object of his cat's bites. "I thought at that time that the wallet made of paper must be broken." Hu Yilin said, but unexpectedly, the wallet was intact. Hu Yilin immediately asked his friend the name of the purse material and hoped it could be applied to his new shoes design. Later, he got some special strength materials from his friends.

Hu Lin completely dealt with his previous cognition and intuition. He first sent the material to the printing shop and got the color. Then, in his own way, he folded up a pair of shoes like a paper folding airplane and fixed them with stapler and glue.

On the second day, Hu Yilin, who was still a Frog designer, walked into the office wearing these shoes, even without shoes. "The first sentence that my colleagues saw in these shoes was" can I touch it? "Instead of" can I have a look? "Hu Yilin said," this is a very peculiar experience. "

But he soon found that Tat's material was very strong, making it not as flexible as canvas or leather, uncomfortable in wearing and discoloring. These two key problems must be solved, otherwise the special Weiqiang will never be made into a pair of shoes of real meaning. But this is obviously beyond the knowledge of a designer.

Hu Yilin decided to try his luck. He made the rough ones. shoes The photo is accompanied by a simple description of his own ideas, making a PDF file and sending his friends to DuPont China company. Two or three days later, he received an invitation from DuPont defense technology division to discuss the solution together.

In fact, Hu Yilin, a local designer who often has some fantastic ideas, is a partner that DuPont has been looking for in recent years. Since 2008, DuPont has begun to pay attention to Chinese local designers, hoping that they will open up more application fields for their proprietary technology and materials. Wu Min, sales manager of DuPont Defense Technology Division, China, told reporters that DuPont has built such a mechanism internally: first line salesmen will immediately give feedback to the corresponding supervisor when they receive the designer's creativity. according to design scheme DuPont's technology and marketing team will discuss the feasibility of the design first. If we all agree that the scheme has market potential and is technically feasible, DuPont will set up a project team to help designers solve technical problems in product design and manufacturing.