Project Reflection

Our project was making shoes that elevate the wearer and give a comfortable bounce as well. They are called Bouncy Shoes. The shoes make the wearer about 11 inches taller. They are made of wood that we painted a shimmery copper color. The wooden base of the shoe is the shape of a box, with no bottom. We used nails to secure the wood pieces to each other. On each side, there are 7 golden rings parallel to each other. There are thick rubber bands that we stretched across the hooks for the purpose of being a comfortable and bouncy sole. Running down the sides of each shoe are nails as well. These nails are to adjust the tightness of the middle strap that secures the middle part of the wearers foot. There are two stretchy straps that, using the nails, cross across each other. This method was discovered to work best in securing the whole part of the wearers foot. This was one of the changes that we made after seeing issues that test wearers of the shoes found. On the thinner side of each shoe, there is a row of nails used for adjusting the tightness of the ankle strap. We used a drill to make the holes for the nails, then we used a drill to drill in the nails themselves. For any nails that stuck out on the outside, we used a hot glue gun to cover the sharp points. On the bottom outside of each shoe, there is a wooden triangle. One issue we faced was that when the wearer leaned on one foot, the shoe would collapse and turn in, posing a very serious threat to someone twisting their ankle. The wooden triangle reinforces the wooden base, and now it is very hard to make that accident happen again. Another issue was that the rubber bands would snap after a few uses, and the unpredictability of the rubber bands made us choose thicker and stronger rubber bands instead. This solved our problem. It was extremely fun to see people reactions when they first got on the shoes. It was also fun to try on the shoes as they improved every time they did. If we had more time, we would want to add lights and even a motion sensor as well.  It was an amazing project that I had a great time making.