design story // slippers. for summer.

Lead designer Joe Cooke talks us through the decision to design a type of footwear never developed before. The recently launched mahabis summer, a unique lightweight slipper, has been designed for ultimate comfort and breathability. Challenging the boundaries of standard footwear design, this new summer range combines the signature elements of the mahabis classic with a light mesh upper, perfect for chilling indoors or out this summer.

Check out Joe's perspective on the design, and get an inside look at the development process. 

What prompted you to design a collection for summer? 

Slippers have always been designed for relaxing indoors on those cold winter evenings, but slippers designed for relaxation on those warm summer days have rarely been considered. Summer footwear is usually light and breathable but often unpractical and uncomfortable, whereas winter footwear is the opposite, we set out to merge the boundaries between summer footwear and winter slippers, creating the mahabis summer.

Old mahabis. New tricks.. what have you maintained from the original design and what sets this range aside from the mahabis classics?

With the upper, we've translated the ultimate comfort, effortless functionality and minimal design of the mahabis classic into our summer slipper. The upper shape and neoprene heel are maintained, keeping a snug and secure fit but ensuring they're as effortless to put on. The new lining of the mahabis summer allows breathability of the foot whilst being super soft to touch, combining this with the new breathable upper mesh produces a super lightweight summer slipper.

What complexities/ difficulties were involved in developing summer mahabis? 

Summer footwear and winter slippers often share very few manufacturing processes, therefore to design a slipper for both environments but with the same unique detachable soles brought its complications. However our flexible TPU soles feature on the mahabis summer as they do with the classic and they’re interchangeable, so you’re free to mix and match, from indoors to outdoors, from classic to summer. 

The summer range comes in four new colour-ways, in addition to the new ivory sole.. where did you take inspiration from when deciding on these colours? 

The new Ilen Ivory sole colour launches with with 4 new upper colours. The colours reflect the rich, vibrant environment of the summer months whilst maintaining the relaxed and understated ethos of the mahabis brand. They all work with our existing classic sole colours so there’s a number of phenomenal new combinations to choose from.

How did the summer design develop, and what's next for mahabis?

We always maintained the vision of a summer slipper throughout the development of the mahabis classic. As with the original design, when creating the summer slipper we tested a variety of materials and experimented with innovative manufacturing processes. This has culminated in the production of a lightweight, year-round, relaxed slipper that is perfect for summer evenings and days in the sun.  

Central to the mahabis brand is the idea that downtime shouldn't be constrained by location or the time of the year. Therefore we’re happy to release our new summer slipper design, which like the signature mahabis classics can be worn both indoors and out.

What's next? We're excited to design to continue breaking boundaries and exploring the possibilities within footwear. So, keep a lookout at mahabis.com over the next few months!

Keep updated with mahabis on Facebook and Instagram, and give this article a share using this ready-to-go tweet.