Development Of A Footwear Comfort Evaluation System

Background: Improving footwear comfort has been the quest for shoe industries as well as researchers.With technological advances,science regarding footwear comfort is constantly improving.Since the anthropometry of the foot is complex,an extensive research to explore all aspects about the foot,footwear,and comfort has been carried out.Purpose: This thesisexplored the aspects of comfort and discomfort in terms of footwear and applies the most relevant and feasible comfort variables as comfort parameters in a footwear comfort evaluation system.Method: A conceptual framework,derived from a comprehensive review of the literature,consisting of major footwear comfort evaluation concepts and its interrelationships were defined and utilized as building blocks for developing the footwear comfort evaluation system.Among several footwear comfort parameters identified,the plantar pressure and dimensional difference(DimD)were identified as the most relevant comfort parameters in evaluating footwear comfort.By integrating the Infoot 3-D Scannerand Novel Plantar Pressure Sensor,the objective data,DimD and peak plantar pressure were collected in our system.Along with the values of the subjective comfort ratings which corresponded with the objective data,hypothesis of previous related studies were tested and the results were compared.Conclusion: The evaluation tool(GUI)developed which carried out the core functions of the system has been validated and then applied to an experiment.The findings indicated strong similarities both value and theory wise with previous studies regarding footwear comfort.