The store’s design problem turns on an issue of legibility: Surefoot sells a fitting process that is unique to the industry, but the store is stocked with rows of intensively patterned and colored boots from immediately recognizable global brands. How can an intangible process supersede or visually insinuate itself into the slick glamour of an industrial design object? The diffusion of the custom-fitting process compounds this design problem; it occurs in a series of small episodes that are not immediately legible as having anything to do with skiing or footwear. In order to fit a boot, Surefoot uses a digital scanner to create a topographic map of the customer's foot, which is in sent to a computer numerically controlled mill to fabricate an orthotic insert. The process is completed by injecting rapid-hardening foam into the liner of a boot while the customer stands on a canted platform designed to simulate the position and resultant stresses of the foot and ankle against the ski boot while skiing. Uninitiated customers can't understand what the staff technicians are doing without a spatial system to indicate that each episode in the custom fitting process scattered throughout the store is part of a coherent whole and a recognizable brand.........
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