Week 4: Designing my own hiking mandals

During the week that DeepSeek launches and obliterates trillions off the stock exchange, one would think that that’s where I would focus my attention. Nope, I go for the hard hitting stuff 😀 

The Problem
I’ve got a problem. A thing for ugly hiking mandals (men’s sandals). If it looks like a space ninja designed it for hiking in the heat, I want to own it. This obsession has led me to buy not one, but two versions of Nike’s split-toed Rift shoe, Salehe Bembury’s Crocs (yes, after I said that putting your child in Crocs was child abuse), and several other questionable choices. Here’s a photo of some of the collection if you need evidence.

My wife says I have a problem. She’s not wrong. But rather than fix the problem, I thought: what if I monetized it instead?

The Experiment
I decided to double down. Why not design my own shoe for fellow freaks like me? Something weird, functional, gorpy and potentially offensive to mainstream sensibilities.

Here’s the thing, though: I’ve generated AI images of my face before, but I’ve never designed a physical product from scratch. The challenge was to create something I’d genuinely want to wear, then put it on a product page as if it was ready for sale. Could I use AI to bring my space ninja hiking mandal dreams to life?

The Process
Here’s how I tackled it:

1. Reference the Greats
   First, I looked to shoe designers I admire—the geniuses behind the niche hiking footwear I like. Think Nike’s split-toed Rift, Nike’s Mocs, and the Reebok Beatnik.

2. Ask ChatGPT to Define the Style
   I asked ChatGPT to break down the attributes of Functional Outdoor Minimalism:

   • Organic design (Shapes and textures inspired by nature).

   • Simplicity meets utility (stripped down with minimal extraneous features).

   • Outdoor-Inspired (rugged and rooted in hiking and trail running).

   ChatGPT did this well and gave me a strong foundation for what I wanted.

3. Brief ChatGPT to Design the Shoe
   I asked it to design a shoe that fit the brief. It started strong and came back with some wild, creative ideas. So far, so good.

4. The Iteration Struggle
   This is where things went sideways. I asked ChatGPT to tweak the design and make it split-toed, like a Japanese tabi shoe. And despite asking five times (and threatening its virtual ego each time), it just couldn’t do it.

   

   The closest it got? A design with six fake toes and a big gap between the big toe and the rest. Not exactly what I was going for.

5. Context Drift Chaos
   ChatGPT also struggled to maintain consistency when I asked for alternate designs. Each version mutated—straps moved, toe shapes changed, and the overall aesthetic started to wobble. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t cohesive either.

6. Product Page Design
   When it came to writing a product page, though? ChatGPT crushed it. The copy was great, complete with fake reviews, feature highlights, and descriptions like "Inspired by the natural flow of ripples and fingerprints, the sculpted sole provides superior grip and a lightweight feel"

   But the problem arose when I asked it to combine all the pieces: design, attributes, and product page. That’s where it fell apart. It could write about the shoe but not really create the page. This isn’t very inspiring:

   

The Outcome
While I don’t have a finished product yet, I’ve got:

• A solid understanding of the key design attributes.

• A journey of AI-generated chaos.

• A renewed appreciation for how difficult it is to design something physical (even with AI).

Plus, I’ve learned that ChatGPT excels at words and concepts, but when it comes to detailed, iterative visual design, it’s not quite there. Yet.

Key Takeaway
AI is great for ideation, summarization, and even the brief for creating fake product pages, but it’s not ready to replace designers. If you’re trying to create something, you’ll need to bring in other tools—or a human touch—to pull it all together.

What’s Next?

• I’ll keep working on the page design with Figma AI.

• I sadly won’t be designing anything bespoke for myself (and you), so will need to keep on shopping…