Crocs, Wellies and jellies-although not necessarily made using polyurethane-all fall under the same category and have emerged immensely successful types of footwear or brands. Such easy to produce, one-shot shoe design innovation could support the re-globalisation of shoe manufacturing. SATRA's head of communications, Jake Locke, said: "The simplicity of the moulded process gives the potential for low cost production depending on the tooling cost of the moulding machines and moulds. "Moulding produces the footwear in a single step saving the need to join together, in a sequence of operations, component parts of different materials which must themselves be pre-formed. It provides a footwear item without joins or stitch holes, ideal for waterproof products. "However, the footwear cannot breathe, unless it is a sandal, and will not break in (adapt to the wearer's own foot) as fabricated shoes usually do."
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