José Luis Seligson focuses on the geometry of a footwear design in "Excellent Shoes," a manipulated photograph that bleaches out extraneous patterns.

Currently, he is a professor of footwear design at Parsons School of Design.

"One of the things that is underrated in fashion history is just how much the 20th century changed footwear design," Ms. Semmelhack said.

The Catteni sure had a good footwear design in those shapeless fold-abouts.

Running alongside me is John Hoke, the 38-year-old creative director of footwear design for Nike.

By opting for comfort over conformity, women should begin dictating footwear design instead of leaving it up to men, who would never dream of walking around with their feet in a torture chamber.

Brad Long & Steven Ploem commercialized the footwear designs for mass production.

The designers pulled from the best ideas, both inside and outside the company, with the intent of reinventing footwear design.

Knight managed the business end of the partnership, while Bowerman experimented with improvements in athletic footwear design.

Mr. Choo, 37 years old, came to London a decade ago from Malaysia to study footwear design at Cordwainers College.