Editor | On 04, Sep 2019

Darrell Mann

After last month’s criticism of the fashion industry’s lack of creativity, we faced a backlash. Armies of angry fashionistas carrying placards outside our offices. Chants of ‘you’re not fit to wear the shirt’. It was, frankly, time for us to hang our heads in shame. And apologise. Even though, it turns out, the ‘you’re not fit…’ song was me mis-remembering things. The song was actually being sung by the supporters of my football team when the ‘players’ again capitulated after playing for an hour. Meanwhile, the SI research team was busy gathering examples of fashion industry creativity to make up for our scurrilous accusations. Creativity winners by a mile turned out to be the shoe design segment of the industry. Without ever using TRIZ, the shoe designers of the world have demonstrated they knew the 40 Inventive Principles all along…

Principle 1, Segmentation

Principle 2, Taking Out

Principle 3, Local Quality

Principle 4, Asymmetry

Principle 5, Merging

Mono-shoe. Great brand name, too.

Principle 6, Universality

Principle 7, Nested Doll

Principle 8, Anti-Weight

Principle 9, Prior Counteraction

(leave backward footprints)

Principle 10, Prior Action

(for those awkward moments when you’ve run out of plates)

Principle 11, Beforehand Cushioning

Principle 12, Equi-potentiality

Principle 13, The Other Way Around

Principle 14, Curvature

Principle 15, Dynamics

Principle 16, Slightly Less, Slightly More

(bit of a trade-off with this one: expanding shoe saves parents money, but are likely to traumatize offspring for life)

Principle 17, Another Dimension

(Sorry, Mexico!)

Principle 18, Vibration

Principle 19, Periodic Action

Principle 20, Continuity Of Useful Action

Principle 21, Hurrying

Principle 22, Blessing In Disguise

(the blessing being that you can tell people you’re wearing the shoes as a punishment, rather than that you chose to wear them)

Principle 23, Feedback

Principle 24, Intermediary

(no animals were harmed, etc)

Principle 25, Self-Service

Principle 26, Copying

Principle 27, Cheap Disposable

Principle 28, Mechanics Substitution

Principle 29, Fluid

Principle 30, Flexible Shells & Thin Films

Principle 31, Holes/Porous Materials

Principle 32, Colour Change

(for that ‘just-stepped-in-dog-poop’ look)

Principle 33, Homogeneity

Principle 34, Discarding & Recovering

(so that’s what the tooth fairy does with them)

Principle 35, Parameter Change

(thanks, Lady Ga Ga)

Principle 36, Phase Transition

Principle 37, Relative Change

Principle 38, Strong Oxidants/Enriched Atmosphere

Principle 39, Calmed Atmosphere

(steel toe-caps – just in case)

Principle 40, Composite