In your view, what is the main value of your participation in the Innovation Booster Fashion & Lifestyle workshop in creating radical innovation?
One of the most valuable aspects of the Innovation Booster was the opportunity to rethink the project together with experts, researchers and participants from very different fields. Even when we already feel confident about our direction, creating space to question the project again from the ground up was extremely valuable.
The workshop in Lugano also led to inspiring conversations and new connections. For example, it was there that I met Luca Innocenzi, who later became involved in topics such as e-commerce strategy and retail ecosystem thinking.
The discussions helped us better understand where the actual innovation lies within the project — not only in the product itself, but in the entire connected system around materials, logistics, communication, repairability and customer interaction.
How did the Innovation Booster program help you with your project?
The program helped us identify the areas where we most needed direct feedback from future customers: Through our own workshops and exchanges with parents, we were able to better understand how to present, adjust and structure our circular system in a way that feels understandable and accessible for parents.
While we had already worked very closely with children during early-development, involving parents more directly felt extremely important for refining the overall customer experience and ecosystem around the product, especially being this close to the official launch.
The Booster also gave us valuable visibility, increased our credibility, expanded our network and allowed us to collaborate with research partners and experts.
How has your innovation idea progressed since being awarded?
Since receiving the award, the project has evolved significantly. In the beginning, back in 2023, our idea was to launch the children’s sneaker exclusively through a subscription model. Through workshops, validation and direct feedback from families, we realised that while a subscription can offer many advantages, it also creates more explanation and a much higher commitment at the point of entry.
We therefore refined the concept around one key principle: make it as convenient as possible for parents, while keeping the product truly developed with children and for children.
Customers now simply buy the shoe normally. Once their child has outgrown it, they can scan the individual QR code inside the shoe and are guided directly into the return and reorder process, including the benefit for the next size. The goal is to remove as many steps as possible and make circularity feel easy rather than complicated.
At the same time, we successfully completed industrialisation and our first production in Portugal. NEUNOI is now officially on the market, with the first dozens of customers already wearing and enjoying the shoes. The webshop and return/reorder system are up and running, and the first series is available in sizes EU 23–40 for children and adults.
The subscription idea is not gone — it may become interesting again at larger volumes, with additional benefits, or for refurbished shoes, for example as a playful “surprise subscription”. We’ll keep exploring this as the system grows.
And one more thing joined the NEUNOI world along the way: our beetles. They help us communicate our values in a playful way — small but strong, highly specialised, and natural helpers in cycles and reuse. They fit surprisingly well with our approach to leftover materials, repair and circular thinking.
