Their shoe is not on the market yet, but if students at A.R. Johnson Health Science and Engineering Magnet School have their way, it will be in the near future.
Step It Up is a flat women's shoe that comes with a short heel, a high heel and a wedge heel. The students say it combines fashion, comfort and convenience.
It won Chantilly Jaggernauth, Joshua Wall and Austin Whiting second place in the Georgia Technology Students Association state competition March 12.
This is the second year A.R. Johnson students have had a project place second in the state competition.
The idea came after one of their co-advisers, Aleks Holiday, shared the story of having to switch out her high heels with slides during a vacation last summer because walking in the heels became uncomfortable.
"She asked us, 'What if they had a shoe where they could just change out the heel without having to change the shoe itself?' " Chantilly said.
So the students began to work on a solution.
"It falls under biomedical engineering, which is using math, science, technology and medical to create a product that would benefit the medical field and the engineering field," Joshua said.
"It's also material engineering because we had to use a specific type of shoe made out of a specific type of material in order to take the strain off of women's feet and ankles," Chantilly added. "It's manufacturing engineering, too."
When creating Step It Up, they had three target demographics in mind, Joshua said.
There's the woman who has suffered an injury that keeps her from wearing a high heel during recovery; the woman who has to walk several blocks to work or events; and the woman who is transitioning from high heels to lower heels.
"It helps because they can still wear their favorite shoe, just change out the heel," Joshua said. "It also would keep women from having to buy a whole wardrobe of shoes. This would save money in an economy that isn't the best right now, so there are a lot of good aspects."
The students' project now moves on to the national level, the 2010 Technology Students Association Conference June 28 to July 2 in Baltimore.
There is still work to be done before then, they said. They want to develop a more efficient locking system -- the current one uses industrial Velcro -- improve the box-packaging appearance and get their prototype manufactured.
They are also working with their advisers, Holiday and Sandra Johnson, to get Step It Up patented.
Holiday said she is proud of the students for taking on the challenge.
"It shows them the diverseness of engineering. It's not just pulleys and gears," she said. "More so, it showed them that anything is possible. There is never a foolish idea, and with research, knowledge and passion they can make anything happen."
Going to nationals is going to be costly, so the students are looking for sponsors, co-adviser Aleks Holiday said.
If you're interested in sponsoring the team, call Holiday at (706) 823-6933.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2012. All Rights Reserved.
