Method and system for identifying a kit of footwear components used to provide customized footwear to a consumer

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program product used for creating a custom footwear product. The method on which the system, and computer program product are based includes inputting in a retail store information about a characteristic of a consumer that relates to the consumer's foot, and receiving in the retail store a determination of a plurality of selected pre fabricated footwear components that have been selected based the information. Also included in the method is creating in the retail store a kit of prefabricated footwear components for the customer including the identified prefabricated footwear components to be assembled into the custom footwear product.

1 . A computer implemented method used for creating a custom footwear product, the method comprising: 
 inputting in a retail store information about a characteristic of a consumer that relates to the consumer's foot;    receiving in the retail store a determination of a plurality of selected pre fabricated footwear components that have been selected based the information; and    creating in the retail store a kit of prefabricated footwear components for the customer including the identified prefabricated footwear components to be assembled into the custom footwear product.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said inputting comprises inputting a measured characteristic of the consumer from a measuring device.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein said measured characteristic comprises at least one of two dimensional foot measurements, three dimensional foot measurements, pressure point measurements, weight measurements, or gait length measurements.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein said inputting comprises optically scanning the consumer's foot to obtain scan data for inputting.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising performing lossless image correction of the scan data.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising determining relative pressures across the consumer's foot based on said scan data.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising establishing foot depth topology based on said scan data.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said inputting comprises providing at least one of an audio or video request for the consumer to input a non-measured characteristic to a system.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein said non-measured characteristic comprises a medical diagnosis, biomechanical problems, demographic information, customer habit information, customer activity level information or customer preference information.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said receiving comprises receiving said determination from at least one of a remote system or a local system within the retail store.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said receiving comprises determining said plurality of selected pre fabricated footwear components based on a database of consumer characteristics each stored in association with at least one pre fabricated footwear component.  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said receiving comprises determining said plurality of selected pre fabricated footwear components based on an iterative expert system for determining the pre fabricated footwear components.  
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein said determining comprises determining at least one of foot elongation or foot spread based on a comparison of dimensional scan data obtained while the consumer is sitting and dimensional scan data obtained while the consumer is standing.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein said determining comprises determining at least one of foot mobility or flexibility based on a comparison of pressure scan data obtained while the consumer is sitting and pressure scan data obtained while the consumer is standing.  
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein said determining comprises determining pounds of pressure per unit area based on pressure data and weight data obtained during scanning.  
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein said determining comprises selecting said pre manufactured footwear components based on at least one of foot elongation, foot spread, foot mobility, foot flexibility or pounds of pressure per unit area.  
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said creating comprises providing a printed list of the prefabricated footwear components.  
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said creating comprises providing a video display of the prefabricated footwear components.  
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising providing instructions for assembling the pre fabricated footwear components into a custom footwear product.  
     
     
         20 . A computer system used for creating a custom footwear product, the system comprising: 
 an input device provided in a retail store and configured to input information about a characteristic of a consumer that relates to the consumer's foot;    a processor provided in the retail store and configured to receive a determination of a plurality of selected pre fabricated footwear components that have been selected based the information; and    an output device provided in the retail store and configured to provide a kit of prefabricated footwear components for the customer including the identified prefabricated footwear components to be assembled into the custom footwear product.    
     
     
         21 . The system of  claim 20 , wherein said input device comprises a measurement device configured to input measured characteristics to said system.  
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein said measurement device comprises an optical scanner.  
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 20 , wherein said input device comprises a keypad configured to receive manual inputs from the consumer.  
     
     
         24 . A computer system used for creating a custom footwear product, the system comprising: 
 means provided in a retail store for inputing information about a characteristic of a consumer that relates to the consumer's foot;    means provided in the retail store for receiving a determination of a plurality of selected pre fabricated footwear components that have been selected based the information; and    means provided in the retail store for providing a kit of prefabricated footwear components for the customer including the identified prefabricated footwear components to be assembled into the custom footwear product.    
     
     
         25 . A computer readable medium containing program instructions for execution on a computer system, which when executed by the computer system, cause the computer system to perform steps comprising: 
 inputting in a retail store information about a characteristic of a consumer that relates to the consumer's foot;    receiving in the retail store a determination of a plurality of selected pre fabricated footwear components that have been selected based the information; and    creating in the retail store a kit of prefabricated footwear components for the customer including the identified prefabricated footwear components to be assembled into the custom footwear product.