The idea under your feet
GUMSHOE began with an everyday city problem: chewing gum left on the pavement. In 2018, the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area, Explicit Wear and Gum-tec brought a different response into view. Used gum could become part of a shoe sole, and the shoe could make that material story visible.
The original website described soles made with recycled chewing gum collected from Amsterdam’s streets. Its campaign line linked footwear to cleaner streets. The pink and black designs gave people something concrete to look at: a low-top sneaker, a moulded outsole and a recognisable city reference.
A collaboration with different jobs
Gumdrop supplied the material expertise through Gum-tec. Explicit Wear brought shoe design. Amsterdam supplied the city context and the awareness campaign. These are the roles documented in the original project; they should not be read as a list of new commercial agreements.
The project presentation names designers Shaquille Gunther and Garezi Septara and shows Publicis One alongside Explicit and Gum-tec. Their contributions are part of the GUMSHOE design story.
What survived
The recovered website contains eight product views, three contributor portraits, the original wordmark and a process graphic. A 20-slide presentation preserved by a shoe museum adds the design thinking, campaign visuals and partner structure. The material supplier and Virtual Shoe Museum independently describe the product.
Together, these records let you distinguish what is visible, what is documented and what still needs a product-specific answer. Photography shows the design; it does not prove a particular pair’s size, current price or condition.
Read the shoe, then choose your pair
- Look at the side, heel and underside views in the collection.
- Read which part uses Gum-tec; do not treat the whole shoe as chewing gum.
- Measure both feet and ask for the actual fit information for your requested pair.
- Confirm size, condition, final price and delivery before accepting an order.
Follow the next chapter
Read the dated 2018 and 2019 descriptions to distinguish an announcement, a design ambition and a model-specific offer.
Explore the original details
- CITY: Amsterdam gives the project its street context.
- MATERIAL: Gumdrop develops the Gum-tec compound.
- DESIGN: Explicit turns a material into a sneaker.
- MESSAGE: The 2018 campaign makes the idea visible.
Sources & image credits
Original GUMSHOE photography and project images are used with the owner’s permission. New diagrams are original explanatory work.