SANGI is charting new territory in footwear. The Italian design observatory is best known for scanning the fashion scene to identify the brightest stars in shoe innovation. Now, they’ve launched something truly unique: Crust. A radical footwear experiment where raw material, industrial technique, and abstract form collide.

Crust

Crust isn’t designed to go viral. It’s designed to start conversations about design, form, and how we build the things we wear. It's a six-piece study in design philosophy developed entirely in Italy. Each prototype reflects SANGI’s fascination with the space between things: craft and industry, structure and chaos, wearability and weirdness.

The pair is made from rocky knits, pigment-reactive dyes, and heat-pressed support structures. They look like they’ve been carved from a lava field, but they’re soft, flexible and wearable.

Beauty in the Unusual

What makes Crust stand out is the story written into every surface. All six models share the same conceptual structure, but differ in colour, texture, and attitude. They're asymmetrical, have exposed seams, and even uneven dyes. However, this isn’t an imperfection, but intentional.

The uppers begin as a single white textile. But through an innovative double dyeing process by Tintoria Emiliana, they’re transformed into unique gradients that are impossible to replicate, just like the terrain they're inspired by.

SANGI didn’t do this alone. Each pair represents the best of Italy’s textile and manufacturing hubs:

• Pointex developed a 3D-knitted fabric coated in TPU to create a rubberised, topographical upper.

• Framis Italia used heat-pressing to form engraved support elements, adding structure only where needed.

• Vibram Group handled the soles, crafting them from handmade moulds using Ecostep and Ecostep Natural compounds.

So no, Crust is not your average pair. But it's definitely not trying to be.

All Images: SANGI

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