Reebok held a design offsite that encouraged footwear designers and apparel designers to collaborate on freeform concepts that weren’t tethered to any existing brand or marketing strategy. In collaboration with apparel designer Rachel Brown, we conceived of the idea of a basic fashion travel kit based on the iconic concept of a ‘Little Black Dress’.

The kit would feature a simple, versatile black travel knit tennis dress and fashion athletic boot that would pass in a business environment, but function while running to catch a flight or working out.

I conceived of a combined hanger & travel bag package that would take advantage of the negative space underneath a clothes hanger to store the boots. The bag would function as a hanger for the dress in a hotel room, or store the dress folded in a separate zip compartment.

For the boot design, I wanted to match the iconic simplicity of the ‘Little Black Dress’ and not sacrifice aesthetics for athletic functionality. My idea was to take the gestural lines of a stiletto heel and mold them into an enamel heel clip that overlapped an exposed foam rear midsole. The midsole in the forefoot would be overlasted to maintain a simple leather fashion boot aesthetic.

The lateral side was designed to have a deep sidecut to lengthen the appearance of the leg and improve slip-on capabilities for airport security. To further improve the workout capabilities I designed the tongue and heel top sections to fold down into a low-cut, exposing a black paisley brocade lining that would match the dress.