The concept of character is very important in all hummel products. Character since 1923 is now the company tagline (our "Just Do It"), and this concept evolved and was first developed in footwear.

I first created the "Jeg har Karakter" concept ("I have Character", in Danish) for my first new football collection with hummel, the 2006 Collection. (see post here about the concept and design brief in the 6.2 Concept FG Case Study).

Click the Read More link below for the full story of the development of hummel Footwear Character, product DNA.



As the time, the idea was to frame the collection and provide a matrix concept and reasoning for the all new models to be designed as well as a marketing strategy.

The first step, was looking at the football market and competitors. I felt it was important to attach a concept and theme to hummel football footwear products that hummel could "own". Seeing as how Adidas represented (for the most part) heritage (even though the hummel brand is older), Nike represented Technology, and Puma represented Lifestyle.

As well, given the nature of our small brand compared to the Big 3, and lack of high profile players and teams under sponsorship, combined with our strategy of "non-marketing" and alternative sponsorship (ie. The Tibet National Team) a different competitve strategy was needed.

The "Jeg har Karakter" concept embraced these issues. Character was something unique that hummel could bring (a alternative approach to different aspects of performance, lifestyle, and design) to the market and targeted and celebrated the individual player not the $100 Million dollar athlete.

The idea was solidified with the definition of 3 different Character types that defined the product mix.



The 4 Series Character is traditional, professional, respectful of the heritage of the game.



The 6 Series Character is the "Rock Star", technical, but unique in personality, not afraid to be different, and connected to fashion.



The 8 Series Character is highly refined, technical, focused on performance and efficiency in skill and control.

Most importantly, the Character concept was broad enough yet specific to provide an open umbrella for a multi-target product approach and fit well with the storytelling approach to marketing hummel has championed for a long time.

Text I wrote from the first Football 2006 Catalog-

Imagine life without stories. Events only existing in the present. No recollection of our history, or dreams for the future. From generation to generation we have passed down stories since man has existed in tribes. These tribes/groups are defined by the stories they tell.

Imagine stories without characters. Tales only of inanimate places, things, stuff. It is in fact the characters of our stories, and by our own character in life that we define ourselves within the groups and teams we live and play. We are all characters. We are all individuals. Characters are integral to creating excitement.

In developing the hummel Football 2006 Collection, we have considered the individual characteristics of the characters present in any team. Exploring each product as a character we have combined technology, design and style to engineer a cast of unique personalities.

We are all Characters. We all have Character.

Jeg har Karakter.

EVen before this character concept, one of the very first (I think I created it for a presentation about my new footwear direction given 2 weeks after I started in June 2004) and most important things I established at hummel, was the footwear DNA concept.

This DNA concept describes the relationship of different products and different product categories as related with similar characteristics in design and concept.

This DNA was developed to bring all footwear products closer and define a strong brand identity.

Visually, you can see these in various details and patterns that are used across product categories including the rear mudgaurd pattern, rounded punched eyelets with embroidery (which has a shape similar to the shape of the "L" in hummel, rear heel window patterns.







This DNA concept has been in uses on all collections since the establishment of the new footwear dept. at hummel and is evident in the design of the new 8.4 PIO FGX.



This DNA concept has also been applied bringing the PIO (Per Invitation Only Concept) to sport. The 8.4 PIO FGX was the first technical teamsports product in hummel to be under the PIO label, and has now set the direction for the PIO label to be applied to all products across categories in both footwear and apparel.



Taking the root idea of PIO, exclusivity, luxury, uniqueness, lifestyle and storytelling, the 8.4 PIO FGX brings these elements to our top technical boot (remember 8 Series products are focused for the technical player). In this way, the 8.4 PIO FGX adopts some characteristics of the 6 series (Rock Star player), and links with the DNA established in other footwear categories.

Likewise the 4.2 PIO FGC in camo Pittards WR100X Analine leather adopts some feel of the 6 Series (Rock Star) and 8 Series (Technical) with a unique, high performance military spec material treatment.

CPH Vision, like most fashion trade fairs is a place to not only spot new brands and trend, but many very interesting people. Personally, I find the fashion people more interesting than most of the fashion.

80's is back....with a vengeance. If these fashionistas are to be believed, we will all be back in hot pink and leggings, sweating to the oldies in no time. In my opinion, I find it all a little over the top. Inspiration and elements are great, but looking like you just stepped out of a Cindy Lauper video is a bit much.

In any case, check of the Read More link below for lots more pics.










Thankfully, not everyone is going back to the future 100%. Also coming back from the 80's with a bit more class and with updated style are denim cuts such as these skinny high-waisted jeans. This I can take, especially on this model.



More pics and People Watching from CPH Vision coming soon.

First up in coverage from CPH Vision is the new hummel booth and collection.

hummel presented a new booth for CPH Vision, which combined the traditional Dansih wood aesthetic with clips of hummel history and past highlights, inspired by the recent hummel Indoor and Old School catalogs I was involved with.

The latest (FW07) footwear collection was also presented, which I will cover in more detail later.

Click the Read More link below for more text and pics from the hummel stand at CPH Vision.


Highights in the collection include the styles Savanna waistcoat, Avery knit hoodie, Avery knit pant and Mia ss cashmere tee from hummel fashion’s AW07 collection which recieved the incredible honor of winning the ISPO Global SportsStyle Award presented last weekend in Munich at GQ Style Night.

UPDATE-

Styledepartment.com interview with me about hummel and First Pullover is now up.

here

as well, translated German version is available here

Concurrently with the pattern development, colorway options and material specification is worked out.

To develop narrow down the colorway and final spec, first, a wide range of color options are quickly explored. Using the outline drawings of the style in illustrator, a number of different directions can be discussed and looked at.

Click the Read More link below for more pics and info.

Normally, the footwear designer will first create many options, then later reduce the options and further develop the stronger ideas, to present to Sales and Marketing for consultation and final selection.

Once the colorways for each style have been explored, and an overall line plan direction identified (at hummel, because we have such small collections, with few styles, I try to create a strong collection theme or plan in colors/materials), material and color specification is determined.




This process involves picking the Pantone colors for each part and the corresponding material. At this stage, for simple shoes like these, an jpeg file is created from Illustrator with material callouts for the factory to follow.

Depending on the project, normally more than one pullover sample is made to correct and determine the pattern. A complicated, technical shoe may take up to 5 rounds of samples to get right.

For the development of the SS07 Stadil, we went through 2 rounds of pullover samples, adjusting mostly small details and further refining the design on the second round.

Click the Read More link below to see the second round samples and corrections.

Click on the images above and below for a larger photo to read correction points.

Once the design had been transferred to a half gauge pattern by the pattern-maker in Asia, a first pullover sample was made to review.

In reviewing this pullover, several changes and adjustments were made to the pattern in order to try to keep the look as close as possible to the original, and the overall look in keeping with the retro style.

Given that there are really no "rules" for most of these points and the final result is somewhat subjective, it is down to the experience and skill of the designer/developer to correct the pullover and make improvements.

Click the Read More link below for more pics and info.


As you can see, even a relatively basic style such as this requires a lot of adjustment and modification. Small changes like collar height, throat width and toecap shape all make the difference between a nice looking shoe and a bad looking shoe.

Click on the images above and below for a larger photo to read correction points.

Taking inspiration from photos of the original style, line artwork was created to develop the pattern of the new product.

While following the original as closely as possible, some changes were made to update the style. These included adding a woven label on the tongue with English and Danish text (based on the tongue logo of another vintage style), changing the chevron pattern was update to reflect our current logo standards and dimensions, and using a newer vulcanized outsole instead of the original handball rubber cupsole.

Click the Read More link below for more pics and info.



The name was also revised to be "Stadil", based on Christian Stadil Hansen, national team keeper and relative of hummel Creative Director Christian Stadil. Christian Stadil Hansen still ranks in the top 20 of All Time greatest handball players with 146 Denmark National Team Games. Giving more personality and history to the shoe, this new name reflects our company philosophy of "Charater Since 1923".

New for SS07 (coming Jan/Feb 2007) are several styles inspired by actual vintage
products. Unfortunately, almost no samples were kept from our rich 83 year history, and little more than back catalogs from the 1980s and few earlier photos remain in our archive.

To bring back from our past key styles, equal parts of creativity and development were needed to recreate designs only using grainy catalog photos.

Clck the Read More link below for more info and pics.


One such style inspired by hummel handball history is the 'Stadil'.

Inspired by an original 1980's style called "Handball Ten" (also shown in some catalogs as the "Zurich"), the Stadil authentically recreates pattern and design language of he original model and adds new retro inspired details and contemporary appeal.

A great find of mine, JUSE, creator of the concrete dunks project and LAVAR T-shirt collection blogged earlier, is now running an exclusive contest to give away a VERY limited development sample of hummel Jacobsen sneakers.

This style was never produced so only exists in about 20 sample pairs worldwide.

Check the link for contest details and be sure to check out his latest project "Out of the box", pictured below another great sneaker/concept work.

First up, some general pics from the CPH Vision fair to give you an idea of the atmosphere. If you have never been to a fashion industry trade fair, and ever have the chance to go, I highly recommend it. Not only is there a fantastic selection of brands and fashion (all in one place), better than any department store, but there is always a great collection of fashion people. Interesting outfits, and beautiful people always seem present at these events...especially here in Denmark!

More pics to come later this week covering my thoughts on trend directions and other great CPH shopping.

Lots more pics after the read more link below.