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Development · concept to sealed sample
Footwear Development Services
Manufacturing starts after the hard part is finished. DOING (DOING INT'L CORP. LIMITED) develops the shoe itself — last, pattern, upper construction, sole tooling, fit and grading — and only then puts it on a line. 1,000+ new designs a year go through this process in Quanzhou, China.
What is footwear development?
Footwear development is the process of turning a design concept or technical brief into a production-ready shoe: material selection, last development, pattern engineering, upper and outsole construction, tooling, prototyping, fit testing, size grading and a sealed pre-production sample. At DOING a new shoe typically takes two to three sample rounds at 2–4 weeks per round; a custom sole mould runs in parallel at about 25–36 days.
Send a sketch, a reference sample or a tech pack — whichever you have. We will tell you what is missing before you spend money on the first round.
Development at a glance
| Start from | Sketch · CAD · tech pack · reference sample · written brief |
|---|---|
| Sample lead time | 2–4 weeks per round |
| Typical rounds, new shoe | Two to three |
| Custom sole mould | 25–36 days end to end (runs in parallel) |
| Last | Dedicated last, or a proven stock last where fit is not the differentiator |
| New designs / year | 1,000+ |
| Testing | In-house lab plus accredited third-party labs |
| Then production | MOQ 300–600 pairs/colour · 1,000 pairs/style · 30–60 days |
| Technical review | Development reviewed by our technical group leader, 20 years in footwear |
Two things stretch the calendar more than anything else: a spec with gaps, and a sole shape that is signed off late. Both are fixable before the first round starts.
The work itself
From concept to pre-production approval
These stages overlap in practice — sole tooling in particular runs alongside the first upper rounds rather than after them. The order below is the dependency order, not a schedule.
1 · Design brief and product requirements
Category, target market, price position, construction, and the quantity you expect to order. Price position matters early: it decides construction and material grade, and changing it after tooling is expensive.
2 · Tech pack review
We read the spec against what a factory actually needs to build. Most extra sample rounds trace back to gaps here rather than to errors on the line — see our footwear tech pack guide.
3 · Material selection
Upper, lining, midsole and outsole materials chosen against the price position and the performance the shoe has to deliver. The usual trade-offs are compared in our footwear materials guide.
4 · Last development
The last is the product; the size on the box is a label. A dedicated last gives a fit no other brand can buy. Background in lasts, sizing and size grading.
5 · Pattern engineering
The 3D last is flattened into 2D patterns, then trialled in cardboard and cheap material before anyone cuts real upper stock.
6 · Upper development
Cutting and stitching decide how the upper holds its shape — see how an upper is cut and stitched. Uppers can also be supplied on their own as semi-finished components.
7 · Outsole and mould development
A sole is only yours if the tooling is yours. 3D sole design first, then aluminium or steel moulds — about 25–36 days end to end. Detail on custom sole and mould development.
8 · Prototype and first sample
The first physical shoe exists to be criticised, not approved. Its job is to expose what the drawing could not — see how sample rounds and costs work.
9 · Fit testing
Wear-test the sample and record what to change in dimensions, not adjectives — "5 mm more instep height", not "a bit loose over the arch". Adjectives are the most common cause of a repeated round.
10 · Size grading
Fit quietly breaks here. EU sizes step in two-thirds of a centimetre — about 6.67 mm per size — and US, UK and JP systems do not convert cleanly between each other. Grading is checked on real pairs, not on a table.
11 · Sample revision
2–4 weeks per round, two to three rounds for a new shoe. Rounds are cheap compared with a production run built on an unresolved fit.
12 · Pre-production approval
A sealed sample, signed by both sides, becomes the standard every inspection is measured against. Without one there is nothing objective to inspect against — see how we control quality.
Evidence
Real development projects
Every figure below is taken from the case study page it links to. Brand names are withheld where the client has not approved attribution.
A German functional-gear brand
A German market leader in functional gear, with a broad EU retail presence, was extending into footwear for the first time. Their debut concept combined two hard-to-engineer features in one shoe — a 100% waterproof membrane upper and a hands-free “slip-in” heel that must flex open for entry yet still lock the foot in securely. They were evaluating several Asian production hubs and wanted an OEM/ODM partner with real R&D depth to turn 3D concepts into factory-ready tech packs, develop the tooling, and meet strict EU REACH compliance.
- $150k — pilot order
- 10k/mo — target EU volume
A Russian military boot buyer
A Russian buyer sourcing military boots in China collected quotes from several factories. Our price was slightly higher than some competitors, so the buyer first placed the sample development with a lower-priced factory. That factory, however, did not understand the customer’s leather-testing requirements — a demanding GOST 28422-89 material specification — and could not match the construction and workmanship the boots required. Unable to hit the standard, the buyer came back to us and asked DOING to manufacture strictly to that spec.
- GOST 28422-89 — leather spec matched
- ~1 month — sampling to confirmed order
A Middle East fashion retail chain
A Middle East fashion retail chain wanted to add EVA clogs to their private-label range, to a specific look, material and comfort standard. The challenge: their team had no footwear experience, so they needed a partner who could develop the tooling, hold every detail to an exact brief, and guide them through a product category they did not know.
- EVA clog — mould developed in-house
- Exact-match — design & material brief
A Brazilian footwear importer
A Brazilian importer wanted to buy footwear from us, but Brazil’s import duties on finished shoes made in China were so high that importing directly from China was not commercially viable. They needed an alternative that kept China-level development and quality but landed at a workable duty cost.
- China — mould & sample development
- Vietnam — production origin (duty-optimized)
A Korean professional marathon shoe buyer
A Korean buyer supplies professional marathon teams and serious runners — people who race in the shoe and notice immediately if it does not perform. Their problem was the plate. What factories offered was often not genuinely carbon, or a generic plate that behaved nothing like a racing plate under a real runner. For a marathon shoe that is not a cosmetic issue: the plate is the product. They needed a manufacturer who could prove the plate was real, and get it into runners' hands in time for races.
- Real carbon plate — verified by the buyer’s own testing
- Korea + China — professional running shoe standards met
Validating what was developed
Development is not finished when the sample looks right. The construction has to survive the tests the category is judged by — abrasion, flexing, adhesion, hardness and, where relevant, waterproof performance. Our in-house lab runs these during development, and accredited third-party labs are used where a buyer or a market requires an independent report.
Footwear testing standards, test by test · Our quality control process · REACH and RSL compliance
Development across categories
The stages are the same; what changes is where the difficulty sits. Barefoot and orthopaedic work is a last problem. Running is a midsole and outsole problem. Safety and military work is a standards problem before it is a design problem.
Barefoot · Running · Safety and work · Military and tactical · Orthopaedic and comfort
Once development is signed off
Most brands move straight into production with the same team that developed the shoe.
OEM footwear manufacturing
Custom shoe manufacturing
Private label footwear
Semi-finished components
Footwear development — buyer questions
What is footwear development?
Footwear development is the work that turns a design concept or technical brief into a production-ready shoe: material selection, last development, pattern engineering, upper and outsole construction, tooling, prototyping, fit testing, size grading and a sealed pre-production sample. Manufacturing is what happens after development is signed off.
How long does developing a new shoe take?
Plan for 2–4 weeks per sample round, and two to three rounds for a brand-new shoe. If the style needs a custom outsole mould, that runs in parallel and takes about 25–36 days end to end — 3D sole drawing 1–3 days, 3D master 3–5 days, mould making 20–25 days, mould trial 1–3 days. Mould making is the long pole, so signing off the sole shape early is what actually shortens the calendar.
Do I need a tech pack before you can start?
No. A reference sample, a sketch or even a clear written brief with target market, price and construction is enough to begin — we will tell you what is missing. A complete tech pack does reduce sample rounds, because most extra rounds come from gaps in the spec rather than from mistakes on the line.
Do you develop a dedicated last, or use a stock one?
Both are possible. A dedicated last gives you a fit that is yours and cannot be bought by another brand; a proven stock last is faster and cheaper when fit is not your differentiator. We advise per category — barefoot and orthopaedic work almost always needs a dedicated last.
How do you record fit feedback so it survives to the next round?
In dimensions, not adjectives. "5 mm more instep height" is actionable; "a bit loose over the arch" is not. Fit comments that arrive as adjectives are the most common cause of a repeated sample round.
Who owns the development work and the tooling?
Tooling developed for your design stays dedicated to your brand and is not reused for other buyers. NDA on request. The design remains yours.
Can you develop in China and produce somewhere else?
Yes — we have done exactly that. One Brazilian buyer had the mould and sample development done in China and the production placed in Vietnam to optimise import duties, with one partner accountable for both ends.
Technical resources
The detail behind each stage.
How to write a footwear tech pack
What a factory actually needs, and the gaps that cost you a round.
Shoe sample development and costs
Stages, timing and what drives sample cost.
Lasts, sizing and size grading
Where fit quietly breaks, and how it gets approved.
Lasting and assembly
How the upper is shaped onto the last and joined to the sole.
What a shoe mould costs
What actually drives tooling cost and lead time.
Glossary: tech pack · last
Short definitions for the terms used on this page.
Start a development project
Tell us the category, the market and roughly where you want to land on price. You will get a real answer on feasibility, tooling and timing from the people who would do the work.