Footwear Design And Development Institute

Working at the Footwear Design And Development Institute over in Sector 24 is a bit different every day. Being in the No Ida area means we are surrounded by a lot of other industrial spots and offices. The building itself is pretty large and has a very functional feel to it. It’s not about being pretty; it’s about getting the work done. We deal with everything related to shoes, from the initial sketches to the actual physical parts that make them up. The halls can be quite long and sometimes they feel a bit empty, but the workshops are usually where all the noise is. You can hear machines running and people talking about materials or measurements. Most of us here have been doing this for a long time, so we don't really think about it as anything special. It’s just what we do. The desks are covered in samples and rulers. Sometimes the air smells like leather or rubber, depending on what we are working on that morning. We have a small canteen where we get lunch, and that is usually the highlight of the day. It’s a chance to sit down and not think about designs for thirty minutes. The commute to Sector 24 can be a bit of a pain with the road work that always seems to be happening, but we make it work. Some of the machines in the workshop are older than the staff, but they still run fine if you know how to handle them.