Creating Platforms for Change.
So when Cosper and husband Christian Brahe-Pedersen decided to start a new shoe company from the living room of their Lake Oswego home four years ago, her mind quickly related her technology background to the new problem at hand.
"And all the sudden," she says, "I went, Oh, there’s my shoe business.’"
Cosper’s company has created a platform wedge for women that allows the top to detach from the base of the shoe; that means the wearer can swap out the top at their pleasure with hundreds of different designs, colors and styles.
"I looked at it from a computer programming standpoint," she says.
"All I needed was a common platform, and then there are more things I could add onto it."
Cosper’s shoe is very similar: a shoe sole with fasteners that allow the user to change the tops as they please.
What makes her shoes even more interesting is that the system by which the tops are made will remain open source.
She was initially told by consultants and industry insiders that she would need $4.5 million to create four different designs, that she would need to order 10,000 pairs of each design and that it would take 18 months to produce shoes, with six of those months spent in China.
"We’re able to design things in real time that respond to trends, and we can provide just enough of a product to meet that demand rather than have to forecast what people are going to like in a year from now and have to take a chance on a bunch of inventory," he says.