The European Confederation of the Footwear industry (CEC) will present the results of its R&D project, CEC-Made-Shoe, for the first time at the SIMAC fair in Bologna on April 17. This project, involving 54 partners, an investment of €20.4 million and an EU contribution of €10.4 million, started in October 2004.
The challenging breakthrough strategy of CEC-Made-Shoe is the development of radical ideas, which will provide instruments for increasing the competitiveness of the European SME footwear sector in the coming years. This is possible since, for the first time in history, a consortium of 54 partners of different disciplines and from other sectors are sharing their research efforts based on one comprehensive and radical new view on footwear R&D.
The project aims at moving the footwear sector from a product centered shoe approach to a human centered approach. This project is monitored by industry partners who want to supervise, test and validate the research activities and results obtained from the industry side.
This project should facilitate quick reaction and delivery to the market, new shoe (product) concepts, materials and processes, preferably by environmentally sustainable methods. In addition, new sales concepts, training and dissemination activities and the overall electronic integration of the supply chain complete the R&D picture.
