Stefan Sagmeister is taking data visualization somewhere it rarely goes: onto people's feet. The Austrian graphic designer has collaborated with Frankfurt-based ekn footwear on two designs — a colorful suede sneaker and a cream-colored leather boot — that translate statistics on renewable electricity and street homelessness into wearable objects.
The shoes accompany Sagmeister's exhibition «Finally, Something Good.», which opens at La Gaîté Lyrique in Paris on October 15, 2026. Rather than reproducing existing artworks on footwear, the project merges graphic design with traditional shoemaking. «It was about seeing what happens when Stefan's way of thinking meets our way of making things,» ekn founder Noel Klein-Reesink said.
For Sagmeister, the appeal lies in reaching an audience beyond the gallery. «A painting in a gallery or museum is seen by people who decided to come in and look. A shoe is seen on the street by people who decided nothing of the sort,» he said. The collaboration extends his long-running exploration of social progress through visualized data, previously presented across historic paintings, installations and everyday objects.
Klein-Reesink sees a natural link between that approach and footwear. «What has always interested us about his work is the way he turns complex information into something immediate and visual,» he said. Here, the artwork no longer waits for visitors — it can catch their attention on the way to the supermarket.
The first model, Bring It On, is a suede sneaker visualizing worldwide renewable electricity generation from 1965 to 2022, including hydro, wind, solar and other sources. Rising figures become a graphic composition across the shoe's upper, while the complete dataset appears on the footbed. «With Bring It On, the shapes and colours became part of the overall design of the sneaker, while the complete information sits on the footbed,» Klein-Reesink explained.
Sagmeister argues the subject deserves more attention than it gets. «While everybody is talking about AI, I find the improvement in renewable electricity generation more consequential,» he said, pointing to possibilities that cheaper renewable energy could unlock, from vertical farming to desalination and carbon capture.
The second design, Like a Complete Unknown, gives a more uncomfortable subject the form of a cream-colored leather boot. Its embroidered graphics visualize reported street homelessness across six countries, drawing on the OECD Affordable Housing Database. The figures range from 76 people living on the street or in public spaces per 100,000 inhabitants in the United States to 46 in Germany, 16 in the United Kingdom, eight in France, five in Mexico and two in Japan. «For Like a Complete Unknown, the graphic is embroidered directly onto the leather,» Klein-Reesink said.
Sagmeister is direct about the limitations of the comparison. «The numbers are not perfect,» he acknowledged. Different national definitions and collection methods mean the figures cannot be treated as an exact measure of relative homelessness. Yet he argues that imperfect statistics can still open discussions that might otherwise remain abstract.
Turning the graphics into functional footwear required more than choosing where to place a motif. Both designs build on existing ekn silhouettes, adapting the original visualizations to the curves, panels and construction of each model. The sneaker uses chrome-free tanned suede, while the boot combines chrome-free tanned smooth leather with embroidered graphics. The process involved repeated exchanges with embroidery specialists and manufacturing partners in Portugal. «It was a very practical process. You make a sample, look at the actual shoe, change a detail and try again,» Klein-Reesink said. The challenge was to preserve Sagmeister's visual language without forgetting that the finished objects should still work as shoes.
The collaboration also raises a question neither partner appears interested in avoiding: what does it mean to sell a luxury-priced boot addressing homelessness? «There is something awkward about a 350 euro boot that carries homelessness data, and I don't think a donation makes that go away,» Sagmeister acknowledged. The boot retails for €350, while the sneaker costs €300. Ten percent of each sale will support organizations connected to the respective subjects: €35 from each boot goes to the Coalition for the Homeless in New York, and €30 from each sneaker to Future Cleantech Architects in Germany. «Ten percent of the retail price goes to organisations working in the respective fields,» Klein-Reesink said. The donations do not resolve the tension between the products and their messages, but they form part of an attempt to connect the visualized information with action beyond the objects themselves.
Both models are handmade at a footwear workshop in Portugal and will be produced through a limited pre-order system rather than manufactured in advance. Orders will be accepted from October 14 to November 15, 2026, with delivery scheduled for January 2027. Available in EU sizes 36 to 46, the shoes will enter production according to actual demand, an approach intended to reduce waste and align supply with genuine interest.