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In Her Boots by Matea Gluscevic, photo Nicholas Bowers
In Her Boots by Matea Gluscevic, photo by Nicholas Bowers

THE GFA 2025 IS NOW OPEN

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YOUR GREATEST DESIGNS DESERVE THE HIGHEST RECOGNITION.

The Global Footwear Awards acknowledges the best in the shoe industry, addressing creativity, innovation, sustainability, and social impact. GFA provides an international platform for professionals and students to share their footwear design, and their innovative solutions to sustainability and social impact, from concept to manufacturing and beyond.

The program offers global visibility to designers, providing greater opportunities in the footwear industry for emerging designers to businesses and corporations.

 

THE 2025 EDITION IS NOW OPEN!

FOOTWEAR DESIGN OF THE YEAR 2024

Guardian Storm by Agency Footwear Llc, photo Mathew Drazic

Guardian Storm Agency Footwear / Footwear Brand of the Year

Surreal by Deborah Kiwi, photo by Shay Ben-Efraim

Surreal Deborah Kiwi / Independent Footwear Designer of the Year

elevé by John Helf

elevé - ballet training footwear John Helf / Emerging Footwear Designer of the Year

Sneex - The Tepper, photo by Kristian Schuller, Unruh Jones

Sneex - The Tepper Sneex / Brand Best overall in Fashion Sneakers

Retrouvailles Trackstar by Canberk Karakaş

Retrouvailles Trackstar Canberk Karakaş / Independent Designer - Best overall in Fashion Sneakers

Puma RS-FUTR by Phaniram Lalpet

Puma RS-FUTR Phaniram Lalpet / Independent Designer - Best overall in Sports Performance

In Her Boots Matea Gluscevic / Independent Designer - Best overall in Sustainability

Rapid Autografting by Wolfgang Laimer

Rapid Autografting Wolfgang Laimer / Emerging Talent Best overall in Sustainability

See All Winners

ANNOUNCEMENT

The Global Footwear Awards announced the winners of it’s 5th edition.

Join us in celebrating the future of footwear! Discover the innovative designs that took top honors in the fifth edition of the Global Footwear Awards, and see how creativity and sustainability are shaping the next generation of footwear. Switzerland – The Global Footwear Awards (GFA) proudly revealed the winners of its highly anticipated fifth edition, a […]

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Industry News & Press

New Balance, 991, Studio DSRPT Remix - Milton L Cato .

Announcing the Winning Selection of “Reimagining Iconic Shoe Designs” Contest in Honor of GFA 5th Anniversary.

With exploration angles including customization through technology, sustainable innovation, artistic collaborations, performance enhancement, and cultural influences, the Global Footwear Awards aimed to showcase exceptional talents... Read more »

Meet Madeline Helt, the designer behind the Smocked Boot | Winner of Emerging Designer of the Year 2023

Footwear Designer Madeline Helt, 2023 Global Footwear Awards Emerging Designer of the Year, unveils the inspiration behind Smocked Boot. This project redefines the climbing boot... Read more »

Exclusive Interview: Inside Marta Andreassi’s Creative Journey – Passion, Perseverance, and the Future of Fashion Design

Marta, an Italian footwear designer, has built an impressive career in high fashion, contributing her creative vision to renowned brands such as Santoni, Doucal’s, and... Read more »
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Global Footwear Awards Jury members

Our esteemed jury panel consists of leading industry professionals whose talents and contributions to the footwear community are aspirational. They are leading professionals coming from different disciplines within the footwear industry, including major publications, retailers, institutions and influencers, providing an overall industry perspective towards the selection of the best design.

Full Jury

GLOBAL FOOTWEAR AWARDS INTERVIEW

Noriyuki Misawa, multi-awarded shoemaker and artist
Magritte’s Stone by Noriyuki Misawa
Magritte’s Stone by Noriyuki Misawa

Meet Noriyuki Misawa, multi-awarded shoemaker and artist.

A pair of good shoes should also be a walkable work of art. How to better integrate technology and art in the process of designing and manufacturing shoes is considered to be a problem that the entire footwear industry has been exploring and thinking about. Recently, Linker  by Red Boots Awards, the Chinese partner of the Global Footwear Awards interviewed Noriyuki Misawa, a Japanese handmade shoe maker/artist, to launch an in-depth dialogue on technology and art, creation and inheritance of shoemaking concepts and professional experience.

Winning the Global Footwear Awards indicate that we are walking the right path and will continue to work hard in this way.

Dempsey Pauwels - Emerging Designer of the Year

It is such an honor to receive this award. I am very grateful to the jury and to the Global Footwear awards for recognizing my work on this international landscape. This design is very significant to me, especially because the realization of the concept was very complicated given the sphere shape of the heel, however I was determined to bring it to fruition.

Tori Soudan - Winner 2021

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