FIF FOOTWEAR LaunchPad Innovation COMPETITION
Footwear LaunchPad is hosted by the Footwear Innovation Foundation and powered by Liminal Group, combining industry leadership with expert facilitation to accelerate innovation in footwear. Meet the experts and industry leaders helping power this competition. 2026 Competition launches in spring.
Why this is so needed
Footwear companies are consumed by day-to-day fires; they cannot prioritize long-term, creative innovation.
- The industry has become:
- Insular – difficult for outsiders to be heard
- Reactive & repetitive – few groundbreaking ideas emerging internally
- Disconnected from emerging talent – especially from engineering, science, and non-footwear fields
- Consumers and brands need solutions they don’t know exist yet.
- Colleges and industry pipelines fail to nurture ideas beyond white papers.
FIF LaunchPad solves this. We open the doors, provide the scaffolding, and ensure ideas become reality.
Different, dynamic, real world impact
This program is different, dynamic, and has a real world impact:
- It is NOT a design contest. It is not academic.
- This is the footwear industry’s own innovation pipeline, built inside the ecosystem – not an outside group trying to get access. Top participants get direct industry access.
- This is the only industry-run accelerator explicitly designed to turn ideas into real solutions – facilitated by experts at the Liminal Group – no one else does this anywhere in retail.
- Top applicants receive first-of-its-kind entrepreneurial, business, and product mentorship that takes ideas from “napkin” to commercial readiness.
- Every application must present an innovation – a solution to an industry problem or a new opportunity – not aesthetic styling.
This competition identifies and builds the next generation of innovators and concepts the footwear industry doesn’t yet know it needs.
How It Works
The process
1Global Call for Ideas
- Open 6–8 weeks.
- Free to apply.
- NOT looking for “designs”, but rather problem-solving and innovation.
- Open to students, engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, industry pros, and industry outsiders.
- Applicants submit a 5-page PDF covering the idea, market fit, approach, and potential impact.
2Evaluation of Applications
- LaunchPad team spends weeks reviewing all submissions and filtering.
- Top 50 innovators are selected, LaunchPad team goes deep into each entry.
- An ‘Elite 8’ are chosen based on:
- Problem they solve
- Opportunity created
- Scalability
- The innovator's vision, grit, adaptability
3All Non-Finalists Retain Support
- Each innovator outside the Elite 8 the LaunchPad identifies with a good idea receives some form of consultation with an industry professional: feedback, refinement ideas, insight on footwear-specific realities.
- LaunchPad team works to ensure no talent or concept is left on the table.
4Elite 8 Bootcamp
Top 8 innovators (the Elite 8) go through an intensive 8-week program to help them refine and build their ideas. *Most competions end here with an award – we take it to the next level to move ideas closer to reality.
- LaunchPad training is worth $100,000+ per person in direct consulting/education/building up.
- Each week, participants join 1.5 hr expert briefings on:
- Finance
- Business planning
- Footwear marketplace
- Supply chain
- Technology
- Prototyping and commercialization
- Intellectual property (including helping file for provisional patents as needed)
- Several weekly 1:1 sessions between innovators and selected technical experts helping with gaps or challenges needing solutions.
- Each participant leaves with:
- Their idea fleshed out
- A clear pitch deck
- A prototyping and deployment plan
- Investment/support asks
5Elite 8 Elevation Event
First public look at Elite 8 ideas and innovators:
- Private event with judges and select industry leaders.
- Top 3 selected on-site receive prize funds.
- Program continues for all 8.
6Support & Sponsor Engagement
- Elite 8 receive continued consulting through the LaunchPad.
- Top 3 receive intensive prototyping/modeling support – the FIF leverages hundreds of labs and factories worldwide to prototype any idea.
- Sponsor companies get first engagement opportunities with Elite 8 innovators:
- Equity
- Royalties
- IP adoption
- Partnerships
- If no sponsor development is formed after 2 months, innovators are supported in building their ideas to reality with FIF and Liminal Group as they go out to the industry to find champions.
2026 FIF LAUNCHPAD COMPETITION
Launches in Spring!
LEAD CATALYST SPONSORS
INNOVATION ALLIES
© 2025 Footwear Innovation Foundation. All rights reserved. The Footwear Innovation Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization.