Shoes that restrict the natural motion of the foot also force the foot into specific motions that can be unhealthy. Children’s feet are particularly vulnerable as they are still growing and are at a higher risk of foot and lower limb problems if the natural motion is restricted. Whilst a more flexible shoe does not affect this motion to the same degree not all feet require the same amount of flexibility and ideally the shoe design characteristics should match the individual’s foot function. For a shoe company to offer a range of shoes that enable the matching of footwear design characteristics to individual foot function would require a large range of shoe types per design. Presently the capital investment for tooling associated with a large number of shoe variants would be cost probative. To compound this issue the large number of variants would require us and our retailers to carry large amounts of stock and reduce the amount of shoe styles as cash becomes tied up in shoe variations. The project will develop the knowhow to enable a shoe to be mass customised at point of sale to fit ergonomically to the individual foot characteristics based on two width fittings and up to six structural types. This would have the benefit of reducing the manufacturing cost, a better use of stock space and increasing the number of styles stocked by retailers. The first aim will be to determine the common feet characteristics and use this information to create a design configuration on which areas of the shoe to customise for best fit. The second aim will be to determine how to change the properties within the shoe to achieve the desired fit. An experimental shoe will then be designed and a basic prototype manufactured. The shoe will then be tested to validate against the design configuration.