Here Are The World’s Most Extraordinary Shoe Designs, Shared On Virtual Shoe Museum By Liza Snook

From killer high heels to Adidas sneakers with teeth dentures as the sole, in a Virtual Shoe Museum run by Liza Snook, you can find all sorts of footwear beyond your imagination.

As Liza shared in an interview with Bored Panda, her journey as a shoe curator and collector started while studying graphic design at the Royal Academy in The Hague in the 1980s. She shared: "I have been collecting almost everything related to shoes. (Wearable) shoes found during traveling completed with books, postcards, articles, and ‘souvenirs’. "

So without further ado, we invite you to delve into the gallery of the most exciting shoe designs by various designers, and for the full interview with Liza, read down below.

More info: virtualshoemuseum

15 PHOTOS

#1 Counterpart By Kobi Levi

Liza Snook, (shoe) curator, collector & connector based in the Netherlands, continued to share the origin story of Virtual Shoe Museum and her involvement with shoe designers: “To capture and share my passion, I created the website VirtualShoeMuseum.com in 2004 together with my partner and interaction designer Taco Zwaanswijk (Stainless Media). Besides that, I have been working as an image editor for the yearly shoe calendars of Workman Publishers New York since 2008. I also judge at various design schools in the Netherlands and abroad, give lectures, and help young designers to kick-start their careers. From the digital collection, I started to create and organize exhibitions about shoes in art and design, in collaboration with various museums, galleries, and events around the world.”

“VirtualShoeMuseum.com is a digital platform for shoe enthusiasts and professionals, where you can search for shoes by designer, color, type, or material. On the homepage, you will find a shoe of the day, a list of upcoming shoe exhibitions, and a blog. You can find an extensive choice of shoes: wearable shoes, paintings, sculptures, illustrations, or videos. There is a big section of shoes in the 'material' menu where you can find designs made of leather, textile, 3D-printed, jellyfish, glass, sugar, blood, denim, seaweed, and many more.”

#2 Daisies By Joe Snacken

"Mirror-finish laser-cut boot with Takashi Murakami smiling daisies appliqué, first-year SASK, d’Academie Beeld Sint-Niklaas in Belgium, 2019.

Drawing from traditional Japanese painting, sci-fi, anime, and the global art market, Takashi Murakami creates paintings, sculptures, and films populated by repeated motifs and mutating characters of his own creation. His wide-ranging work embodies an intersection of pop culture, history, and fine art.

Photo by Charlotte Visser."

#3 Spill By Kobi Levi 

"Two different colored leather slip-on shoes with a metallic silver upper, 2023.

Inspired by ‘Acrylic pour painting’, a painting method created by using acrylic paint to pour on a surface to create a flowing design.

© Kobi Levi Design"

Besides the website, Liza also curates real-life shoe exhibitions. She wrote: “In 2009 I started with a 10 'real' shoe booth at the GDS shoe fair in Düsseldorf, Germany, which expanded in the following years with more shoes and continued in Dongguang, China. In 2013, the exhibition 'Starker Auftritt – Experimental Shoe Design', consisting of 120 experimental shoes, was on show at the Grassi Museum for Applied Arts in Leipzig, Germany. This exhibition was the start of years of worldwide exhibitions: ‘SHOEting Stars’ and ‘Shoes in Senses’ in Austria, ‘Shoe Show’ in Kuwait and UAE, ‘HIGH HEELS’ in Germany, ‘Shoe Magic’ in Hungary, and ‘SHOETOPIA’ in the USA, amongst many others. On the show this year: ‘Shoe Fantasies’ in Pécz, Hungary, and from September participating in ‘Death and the Devil’ in Düsseldorf, Germany.”

#4 Wooden Crocs By Ruben Lekkerkerker

"Wooden carved Crocs clogs, 2022.

The only, durable non-plastic, crocs Dutch people need!

© Ruben Lekkerkerker."

#5 Disassemble Me #2 By Amber Ambrose Aurèle

"Construction shoe made of recycled plexiglass with leather straps and a quilted rainbow fabric sock shoe, 2020

Photo by Charlotte Visser."

As you have already noticed, most of the designs are not the peak comfort for your feet, and some are just sculptures of shoes, rather than footwear. We asked Liza to share her look at design choices that prioritize aesthetics over practicality. “In our collection, you will find many shoes that prioritize aesthetics over practicality; the category ‘experimental’ is by far the largest. With the developments of the techniques like 3D printing and AI, this will only grow. I find it very interesting when you have to look twice to see if it is a shoe when the shoe shapes don’t follow the foot shape…”

#6 Psychedelic Dreams By Floor Hermes

"Part of the graduation collection ‘Psychedelic Dreams’, 4 pairs of shoes, 4th-year SASK, d’Academie Beeld Sint-Niklaas in Belgium, 2022.

Marbled leather sandal with a transparent gaiter and layered acrylic platform sole.

Photo by Hessel Waalewijn."

#7 Polyposis By Kermit Tesoro

"Mixed media sculpture, inspired by Cephalopods, 2015.

A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head, and a set of arms or tentacles modified from the primitive molluscan foot.

Material: Resin and plastic mixed with powdered corals and pulverized branches.

Photo by Charlotte Visser and Museum Lichtenwalde, model Elisabeth Thorsen."

Liza shared how she strikes a balance between artistic expression and functional design in the footwear collections she curates: “The range of shoes is very wide. Some approach it from the perspective of construction and expression, others from the study of materials and technique. The multifaceted potential of shoes as a creative medium is reflected not only in the shoes themselves but also in installations, photographs, and videos. I try to show shoes that are unique works of art and shoes that make a statement or have a function like planting seeds, feeding birds, transforming from sneakers to slippers, or are made/re-made from waste materials. From the large database, I can make selections per topic.”

#8 Horn By Vero Twiqo

"Large swirling motif leather two-colored pumps with a dainty heel, made to order, 2021.

A series of imaging extended antennas spread one’s personality from the toes of the shoe. 
Available in three two-color variations.

© VERO TWIQO"

#9 Awakening By Ying Ou

"Part of the LCF graduation collection, consisting of six pairs of shoes, 2023.

This collection comes out of Ying’s fear and unease about the loss of physical human contact in public space in this era, leading to a rigidity of self-consciousness. As the development of digital technology and the repeated ravages of the epidemic have exacerbated the disconnection between the body and the physical world, new fields of perception have affected our social systems and habits and have changed the way we perceive the world, which are key elements in the construction of self-identity.

This collection explores the unconscious and unusual interaction between the most obvious objects that have lost their connection in public space – railings or handrails – and the body, experiencing their different mental space sensations. In doing so, it explores new forms of footwear and attempts to evoke human communication and perception with objects in public space and to consider their intimate relationship with each other. And looking for breakthroughs in metal, two-tone leather, and 3D printing.

Photograph by Anson Shen."

We asked Liza to tell us more about a few of the designers that interested her in their approach. She wrote: “It is very hard to pick shoe examples from the Virtual Shoe Museum because every shoe on the website has its own quality, technique, novel material, or story, so I selected a few different shoe projects to highlight. Sometimes you have to look twice and sometimes projects touch you.”

“First one is Joyce de Gruiter (NL). She has been fascinated by high heels since her childhood. As a child, she was enamored with her mother’s Chanel shoes. Joyce knows that life is simply too boring with unwieldy footwear, something that every woman (and man) understands. She transformed women's and men's shoes into a glamourous contemporary statement, a fetish object, a deadly weapon, an architectural tower, and in all the iterations, an object of high artistic expression.”

“Then there is Rémi Vergnanini (B), who is a model, costume designer, and shoemaker based in Belgium. Currently studying at d’ Academie Beeld Sint-Niklaas (former SASK) in Belgium.”

#10 Snow White By Tran Ngoc Yen Tomas Bata University

"Project by Tran Ngoc Yen for the Faculty of Multimedia Communications, Shoe Design Studio, 2017.

Material: leather, wood, and a red apple.

Snow White is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection Grimms’ Fairy Tales. The name Sneewittchen was Low German and in the first version, it was translated with Schneeweißchen. The Grimms completed their final revision of the story in 1854. The fairy tale features such elements as the magic mirror, the poisoned apple, the glass coffin, and the characters of the evil queen and the Seven Dwarfs.

© Tomas Bata University ZlÌn, photo Barbara Zaťková."

#11 IKEA Boot By Hideki Sato

"Open-toe boot. Inspired by IKEA’s iconic large blue FRAKTA shopping bag, 2017.

Materials: recycled shopping bag, the handles are transformed into a graceful bow on the instep.

@ Hideki Sato"

“The third one is Jo Cope (UK), a female artist and conceptual craftswoman who has been pushing the formal boundaries of fashion for almost two decades. Jo’s interest is in creating a new role for fashion, creating socially active and highly crafted vessels, that can exist and communicate both on and off the body.”

“And last but not least: Shanshan Yang (China), who graduated in footwear design from the London College of Fashion in 2023.”

#12 Walk The Thin Line By Joseline Haverman

"Haverman creates shoes out of curiosity and her only starting point is that the shoe should be wearable, 2022.

Every step in the creative process is a choice for Joseline in what is possible. This design is an extreme expression of that process. Designed at the René van den Berg Academy, The Netherlands.

Material: leather and wood.

Photo by Charlotte Visser."

#13 Vive La Death! By Into Into

"Unique handmade shoes, 2015.

Material: wood, leather, and metal.

© Into Into"

Liza shared her hopes on what she would like for people to take away from this collection of shoes. “I hope to share my passion for shoes in art and design and to promote the work of so many talents in various fields of art and design. So be amazed by the wide variety of shoes that make you wonder, think, and smile.”

And lastly, she added: “The start of this platform has brought me so much new inspiration, friendships, amazing adventures, and opportunities… shoe people are nice people.”

#14 Orthopedic By Elisabeth Thorsen

#15 Mirror Boots By Mihai Albu

"Optical illusion, mirrored boots, 2013.

© Mihai Albu"