So you may be asking yourself, Soap Shoes®?? What in the world are those??

Well, Soap Shoes® are a brand of shoe that contains a hidden grinding plate on the bottom made from plastic. With this plate, you have the ability to jump onto virtually any edge or rail and slide across or down it with ease!

You can see examples of soaping in action in the video clips below.

Video Clip #2

This is considered to be part of a sport by some people. It’s called Free-Style Walking. FSW is simply people jumping off, jumping over, twisting off, or grinding down objects. The idea is simple and leaves the rest to your imagination. But grinding shoes add a whole new level to the experience.

So, now you are probably asking yourself, what is the point of all this? Well, Soap Shoes® have multiple designs for the grinding plates which are useful in different situations. These plates are also removable and replaceable with the use of a special key. Examples of the styles of the plates can be found here.

The idea behind my project and this web page is that I will be designing my own type of grinding plate that could be placed on the bottom of a shoe. I’m going to follow the basic stages of a part design to help guide the process.

Step 1: Defining end-use requirements

Step 2: Create preliminary concept sketch

Step 3: Initial materials selection

Step 4: Design part in accordance with material properties

Step 5: Final materials selection

Step 6: Modify design for manufacturing

Step 7: Prototyping

Step 8: Tooling

Step 9: Production