Development & Sampling

Your design.
Understood, engineered, delivered.

A brand does not hand over a shoe — it hands over an intention. Our job is to translate that intention into last geometry, patterns, materials and a sample that matches what you drew. Here is exactly how that happens, stage by stage.

Start a development brief   Inside a sampling round

Design workbench: hand-drawn sketch beside the finished sample shoe
The sequence

Six stages,
in dependency order.

These overlap in practice — sole tooling in particular runs alongside the upper rounds rather than after them. What does not move is the order of the decisions.

01
Brief & requirements
Category, target market, price position and expected volume. Price position is fixed first because it decides construction and material grade.
02
Tech pack review
We read your specification against what a sample room must actually build, and flag the gaps before the first round starts — not after.
03
Last & pattern engineering
A dedicated last, or a proven stock last where fit is not the differentiator. Patterns are trialled in cheap material before real upper stock is cut.
04
Materials
Upper, lining, midsole and outsole selected against price position and the performance the shoe has to deliver. Swatches approved in the hand, not on screen.
05
Prototype & fit session
The first sample exists to be criticised, not approved. Fit feedback is recorded in millimetres, so the next round changes one measurable thing.
06
Revisions & PP sample
Typically two to three rounds at 2–4 weeks each. A sealed pre-production sample, signed by both sides, becomes the standard every inspection is measured against.

Outsole tooling runs in parallel at typically 25–36 days end to end. Production timeline: what happens after approval.

Sample and material testing during development
✎

You do not need a finished spec to start.

Send whatever exists — a sketch, a photo of a reference shoe, a half-written tech pack, or three lines of text about who you are selling to. We will tell you what is missing and what it will cost to fill in, before you commit to a sample.

A sketch
We develop construction, materials and dimensions with you, then confirm it back in writing.
A reference sample
Tell us what you want kept and what you want changed — we reverse the pattern from there.
A tech pack
We review it against the sample room's needs and come back with questions, not assumptions.
Questions

What brand teams ask
before the first sample.

Straight answers. If yours is not here, ask it directly — a human replies within 12 hours.

Show all 6 questions

How many sample rounds does a new style usually take?

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Two to three rounds for a new style, at 2–4 weeks per round. Most extra rounds trace back to gaps in the spec rather than errors on the line — which is why we read the tech pack against what the sample room actually needs before the first round starts.

What do you need from me to start?

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A sketch, a reference sample, a tech pack, or just a written brief — whichever you have. Send it to sales@steed-sports.com and we will tell you what is missing before you spend money on the first sample.

Can you develop a shoe from a sketch only?

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Yes. We fill in construction, material and dimensional detail with you, then confirm it back in writing so both sides are building to the same document. The sketch is the starting point, not the specification.

Who owns the tooling and the design?

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The tooling is yours. A sole is only yours if the mould is yours — dedicated tooling is quoted per project and is not used for any other client. Designs and technical files stay confidential under NDA and are never reused for other customers.

How do you handle fit problems?

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In millimetres, not adjectives. “A bit loose over the arch” becomes “5 mm more instep height”, so the next round changes exactly one measurable thing. Grading is checked on real pairs, because EU, UK, US and JP sizing do not convert cleanly.

What is the minimum order quantity?

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MOQ is 600 pairs per color (mixed sizes) for styles we already run; custom styles start at 1,200 pairs per color; new tooling is a separate conversation. Development and sampling are quoted separately from bulk, so you know what you are spending before you commit to production.