Parsons Students Go Toe-to-Toe in Allen Edmonds Competition

There’s nothing like a little healthy competition to get the inspiration flowing. With this in mind, Allen Edmonds challenged Fashion Design students at Parsons The New School for Design to come up with designs for their upcoming collection--and ShoesTV has all the details!

The Kings Point by Melanie Berger is a modern reinvention of the World War II American military boots.

"We're always working to push the design boundaries at Allen Edmonds," Allen Edmonds President and CEO Paul Grangaard said."Parsons is an absolutely premier American design school, and we believe the creativity of Parsons' student designers will give us a fresh perspective on classic American styling."  

Students were asked to submit designs that stayed true to Allen Edmonds’ classic style while incorporating trendy colors, textures and detailing. After the first round of submissions, Allen Edmonds whittled it down to six semi-finalists. The students hopped on a plane to Wisconsin and spent two days in Allen Edmonds’ Port Washington factory, turning their sketches into three-dimensional computer-aided designs (CAD).

Ick Jeong Ahn brought in elements of Texas fashion when designing The Austin.

 Now, it’s up to you! Allen Edmonds has displayed those six designs on their website for public voting. The company will bring the three finalists back to their Port Washington factory and they will be taught how to turn their designs into shoes.

 Victoria Hayes' was inspired by the 1934 Ford Model 40 Special Speedster when designing The Speedster. 

Allen Edmonds will keep the voting open until March 2 and will announce the three finalists on March 26. The public will vote for their favorite, and those results—combined with the feedback of a judging panel—will determine the winner. In May, we'll learn which shoe made the cut.