Third-year shoe design students organized a spring show Walk the Dock at Cultural Arena Gloria in Helsinki on 21 May 2008. The show, which has improved significantly during the past couple of years, surprised the audience with its simple and stylish outcome: catwalk, lighting, models, make-up and hair.

Shoe design has been strength of Häme University of Applied Sciences (Wetterhoff) for years. Walk the Dock wasn’t an exception; the show presented names and design to follow the footsteps of shoe designers Minna Parikka, Aki Choklat, Julia Lundstén (FINSK) as well as Janne Lax (St. Vacant) and Terhi Pölkki, both former students of Wetterhoff. Pölkki was recently chosen the Shoe Designer of the Year 2008.

The show presented rather commercial design, but also some experimental elements. However, completely experimental and artistic design without commercial boundaries, was missing in the show.

Only one of the collections, a collection of three shoes designed by Miina Manninen for Broadway (by Mantere) was designed for a company. Yet many other shoes could have been put in a window or a shelf of a shoe shop – or in the street, worn by a consumer.

Many of the designers will definitely be heard of later. Especially the names of Milja Havusela, Aku Bäckström and Netta Makkonen are worth remembering.