Annie Purdy

About

My PhD project, began August 2026, is undertaken as Doctoral Candidate 13 within the Sustainable and Circular Footwear Training Program SCARPA, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Joint Doctoral Network. Within SCARPA, DC13 is concerned with circular business models for footwear longevity and the development of purchasing and reuse strategies beyond single-use consumption. My research builds upon my professional and practice-based background as a footwear designer and shoemaker. Previous work concerns reusing footwear, emotional durability, material experimentation and community. This designer led position is methodologically significant: rather than observing circular footwear systems only from outside them, the project will use design practice itself as a means of important inquiry through construction and making. Through making, testing, reflection and iteration, footwear artefacts will be used to formulate questions, expose assumptions and investigate possibilities that interviews and observation alone cannot reveal.