Arsutoria School’s ‘3D Design of Lasts and Soles’ course dedicates a specific module to the study and modification of shoe lasts, using NewLast Group technologies. A course that brings designers, developers and technicians face to face with the fundamentals of the shoemaking process.
For years, the last has been a paradox: the object that determines the shoe’s silhouette, allows the upper to be shaped, and makes final assembly possible has long remained a blind spot in training. Students were taught to draw and design shoes, choose materials, and interpret trends. But the last was often left out of the picture, something one only learnt after years spent working side by side with an expert last-maker in the factory, through trial and error.
Arsutoria School has now decided to dedicate part of the ‘3D Design of Lasts and Soles‘ course to this, aiming to provide students — designers, product developers, technicians — with a practical understanding of what happens during the design phase of the structure underpinning a shoe. And since lasts come first, an intensive week-long course is dedicated specifically to them.
Paolo Marenghi, Technical Director at Arsutoria, immediately clarifies the terminology:
‘The last is the beginning of everything. We must consider it both as a design tool — it is the object that will give the final silhouette to our project — and as a production tool: it is what allows us to shape the upper, attach the soles, and construct the finished product.’
This is not about training technical last-makers. Marenghi is explicit about this limitation: “A lifetime is probably not enough to truly understand how this fundamental object is shaped and constructed.” The course’s ambition is more focused, and perhaps for this very reason more useful: to give students the ability to understand what they are asking for when they request a modification to the last. A different heel height, a variation in the toe box volume, an adjustment to the instep. Those working in design often request such alterations without knowing exactly what they entail or whether and how they can be implemented. “Designers,” explains Marenghi, “are able, after this course, to communicate more effectively with the last-maker. It is important that anyone involved in the construction of a shoe understands the basics of modifying a last, because it forms the foundation of every project.”
To achieve this goal, Arsutoria has chosen a key partner: NewLast Group. Indeed, the collaboration between Arsutoria and NewLast continues to train the next generation in last design. As Andrea Galbiati, Technical Manager at NewLast Group, explains, the value of this classroom-based approach lies in making visible a process that usually remains hidden: “The workflow followed in this course mirrors what happens today in a last-making workshop. It is like a window through which to observe a landscape never seen before: what lies behind the last, how it is digitised, how the designer or pattern-maker can modify it, and what tools are available to transform an idea into a product.“
The technologies brought into the classroom by NewLast are those used in real production environments. The DGS8MP scanner — featuring 8.5-megapixel cameras and structured light technology, unique in the sector with these specifications — allows a mould to be digitised in around five minutes, producing a 3D file ready for subsequent stages of modification or turning. Everything can be derived from that file: the physical prototype, the virtual prototype in protected .FRV format, and the reference for the upper design. The digital model — unlike the traditional wooden one, which changes volume with humidity and relies solely on human skill — becomes a stable reference point from which to replicate lasts anywhere in the world, quickly and with extreme precision. This is the first revolution that NewLast introduced to the sector, thirty years ago.
The editing software paired with the scanner highlights the difference between the artisanal past and the digital present. Galbiati uses an example that speaks louder than any technical description: ‘I want to replace the square toe of a last with a tapered one. In the traditional process, I have to make a copy of the lasts, cut off the toes, glue them on, wait for the piece to dry, apply filler, and finish it: at least half an hour, with material waste. With the digitiser and the software, in ten minutes I digitise the piece, make the substitution in the software, the patternmaker indicates how it should be done, and the result is practically immediate. No copies, no waste.’ He then adds: ‘This is one example among thousands of the potential of a digitised last.‘
There is a limit, however, that technology cannot cross. And it is worth emphasising: “There is no system — not even with artificial intelligence — that can intuit what the designer has in mind and transform it into a physical object that fits well,” says Galbiati. The designer/patternmaker of the future is not someone who ignores traditional methods: it is someone who will be able to devise new processes based on the potential of digital tools, transferring to those tools the experience that no algorithm can replace. The direction is opposite to replacement: it is an expansion of capabilities.
This is where the collaboration with Arsutoria finds its most concrete justification. “Training must be comprehensive: one must have a thorough understanding of the footwear design process in order to make the most of technological innovations.”
Marenghi reiterates: “With this new course, we aim to provide the opportunity to gain knowledge regarding what is fundamental to product development.” In a sector where the gap between designers and manufacturers risks widening ever further, the new Arsutoria course and the collaboration with those working daily in the industry are part of a forward-looking vision to secure the sector’s future.
For those who want to deepen their knowledge of EasyLast and technical shoe last design, this course offers a concrete starting point: hands-on training led by industry professionals, within a school that has been shaping footwear talent for nearly a century.