“We must build a bridge between past and present in order to shape the future. So, we have combined new technologies with our traditional know-how, which has been also made digital to make it easier to use and instantly accessible”

The Giannini brothers, owners of Doucal’s, talk about their idea of shaping a new and original shoe-making philosophy

This is Doucal’s 4.0 project, promoted by the luxury artisanal footwear company with two departments of the Marche Polytechnic University. The main aim is to digitalise the manual skills of shoemakers in order to promote staff training schemes, lower the margin of error, optimise production and pass on corporate knowledge to future generations. Tradition and high levels of artisanal knowledge are not easy to find. Qualified personnel are thin on the ground and both the learning and training process are slow. Technology applied to training can help to accelerate the process, closing the gap between what we have and what we need, improving training work and boosting motivation

A key part of this project are the virtual smart glasses worn by the clickers, closers and assemblers; these glasses have been equipped with tiny cameras to film the artisans’ gestures in real time. The footage is then sent to a computer which examines each single frame, analysing the repetitiveness of the work and allowing to set a standard for the production process. Work stations are filmed on an anonymous basis and sorted out into categories depending on the footwear style and specific work techniques
This allows the company’s intangible heritage (its artisanal skills) to become ever more tangible, while implicit knowledge is spelled out and can be used on a remote basis across a variety of platforms in a cross-channel strategy