FootGlove: A Haptic Device Supporting the Customer in the Choice of the Best Fitting Shoes

The core issues of mass customization (MC) are to provide more and more conveniences to meet customer's customized requirements and to ensure near mass production efficiency and quality in manufacturing processes. Since the MC provides to the customer, in the footwear sector, the possibility to choose shoes with different materials, colours, sizes and performances, the shops need big stocks in order to give the possibility to the customer to try the different solutions available. The FootGlove is a haptic device simulating the internal volume of the shoe, through a set of mechatronics mechanism, allowing the customer to try the shoes that are not yet manufactured. One of the advantages is permitting to the shop to have small stock. This paper will discuss how the FootGlove simulates the fitting of the shoes with different sizes and typologies to support the customer in the choice of his best fitting shoe.