From Venezuela to the World: How Sara Valeri Is Changing Footwear
Venezuelan entrepreneur Sara Valeri is shaking up traditional sportswear and footwear design approaches, bringing modern technology into shoes with virtual workflows, 3D printing, and parametric design.
Breaking into the footwear industry hasn’t been easy; Valeri has continued overcoming socio economic hardships and challenges in her journey from Venezuela to the United States, but that journey has also given her boldness and hunger to think more creatively. Valeri has brought resilience and creativity to her work as a Venezuelan immigrant and as a woman in a field dominated by male designers.
Today, her brand, SVR Design, provides Valeri with a creative platform from which she can experiment with new technologies, push the limits of what is possible with athletic footwear, and share ideas and projects with designers worldwide.
A Hard-Won Battle
Like a competitive athlete herself, Valeri has had to fight for her success. Her childhood in Mérida, Venezuela, surrounded by political instability, may not have provided access to resources and opportunities, but it did ignite in her a passion for sports and design.
When Valeri was nine, her brother suffered a spinal cord injury, and his resilience inspired her. Industrial Design was not a well-recognized field in her home country, so Valeri immigrated alone to the United States to pursue her dream of being an industrial designer.
In the US, Valeri earned degrees in Industrial Design at SCAD and a Masters in Sports Product Design at the University of Oregon, studying biomechanics, Human Physiology and learning about advanced design materials. Working with brands like Under Armour, HOKA, and Faryl Robin, she has worked to express her identity as a queer designer – drawing on the resilience and strength she learned from her childhood – and is carving out a name for herself in an industry where women remain under-represented, eventually launching her brand.
A Unique Approach to Design
From humble beginnings in a region suffering from an economic crisis and electricity blackouts, Valeri leads today in integrating advanced computing and design. Her use of VR in design has allowed for faster and more creative design work, as her team can test their virtual or augmented reality concepts. Valeri has also introduced parametric design to the workflow. By providing specific parameters and geometric relationships to a computer model, with a few keystrokes, expanding the range of experimentation. 3D printing allows Sara to bring a new level of precision to their footwear.
The biggest advantage of 3D printing is that it eliminates overproduction. With on-demand manufacturing, you only make what’s needed, which massively cuts down on waste. Plus, it allows for incredible customization (when basing a design on a 3D scan). It also allows for rapid prototyping and if using 3D-printed materials, like TPU, this is great for recyclability. The creativity and testing speed permitted by digital design give Valeri’s brand an atmosphere of excitement and a license to be bold.
Projects That Have Hit the Ground Running
SVR Design is already seeing results. Their Digi-Puff 3D-printed shoe won the Prospect 100 x Zellerfeld competition and was the first 3D-printed shoe on Zellerfeld’s platform to be designed by a woman. Thanks to SCADpro, Valeri has also collaborated with other SCAD creatives to work along with Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams on work from home collection, in which she developed the “EVA desk chair”, that has been sold in stores and online.
Both projects exemplify Valeri’s philosophy that design is a tool for impact, not just aesthetics; “it should solve problems, inspire, and connect,” Valeri says. According to Valeri, good design tells a story and creates an opportunity.
Looking to the future, Valeri hopes to grow SVR Design into a larger hub and brand for experimental design and develop her independent design studio, where she can collaborate with brands, athletes, and creatives to extend the possibilities of performance sports products and Industrial Design.
Valeri wants to open doors for more designers from underrepresented groups and launch independent product lines that will allow her to explore new digital design manufacturing methods. She is excited to create a space where designers from diverse fields—including artists, engineers, and musicians—can contribute their expertise to the world.
You can learn more about Sara Valeri and SVR Design by visiting Valeri’s official website.
