# Stefan Sagmeister's shoes turn data into wearable art

> Austrian designer creates sneakers and boots that visualize renewable energy and homelessness statistics across six countries.
- Title: Stefan Sagmeister's shoes turn data into wearable art
- Summary: Austrian designer creates sneakers and boots that visualize renewable energy and homelessness statistics across six countries. Stefan Sagmeister designed two…
- Keywords: stefan sagmeister, ekn, shoe design, data visualization, renewable energy, homelessness, product design, gaîté lyrique, Stefan, Sagmeister's, shoes, turn
- Source: Fastcompany — https://fastcompany.com/91623596/stefan-sagmeisters-new-shoe-designs-are-actually-walking-infographics
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: stefan sagmeister, ekn, shoe design, data visualization, renewable energy, homelessness, product design, gaîté lyrique
## Designer turns data into shoes
Austrian graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister created two shoes for German footwear brand Ekn that use data visualization to tell stories about renewable energy and homelessness.
## Exhibition runs through April
The shoes are on view at Sagmeister's exhibition Finally, Something Good at the Paris gallery Gaîté Lyrique through April two thousand twenty-seven.
## Exhibition looks at the long term
Sagmeister says the exhibition is meant to look at the world over the long term rather than through daily news. Each shoe uses data to tell a story.
## The key is in the footbed
The key to understanding what the shoes say is written in the footbed, where data and statistics are explained for wearers to read.
## Bring It On shows energy sources
The Bring It On, a multicolored sneaker, uses data from the Energy Institute's two thousand twenty-four Statistical Review of World Energy.Yellow represents hydropower, black represents wind, pink represents solar, and red represents all other renewables.
## Solar data already outdated
Sagmeister says the shoe is already out of date.In two thousand twenty-five figures published that summer, solar passed wind for the first time, so the pink panel should be slightly bigger than the black one.

> Wonderfully, the shoe is already out of date.
## Like a Complete Unknown shows homelessness
His other shoe, Like a Complete Unknown, is a boot that uses circles to represent the relative homeless populations of six countries.
## Homelessness rates by country
The biggest circles are for the U.S. at seventy-six, and Germany at forty-six, followed by the U.K. at sixteen, France at eight, Mexico at five, and Japan at two per one hundred thousand inhabitants.
## Numbers reflect counting differences
Sagmeister says countries count differently, so the numbers are not perfect. But Mexico, a much poorer country, reports a fifteenth of the American rate, and a gap that size is not only a counting difference.

> Countries count differently, so the numbers are not perfect, but Mexico, a much poorer country, reports a fifteenth of the American rate, and a gap that size is not only a counting difference.
## Sagmeister's homelessness experience
Sagmeister volunteered for the Coalition for the Homeless, an advocacy and service organization. What stayed with him was why some countries handle the same problem so much better than others.
## Data becomes conversation starter
By turning data visualization into shoes, Sagmeister makes the data into a functional conversation starter that people wear and carry with them every day.
## Key takeaway

Stefan Sagmeister designed two shoes for German brand Ekn that use data visualization to show renewable energy sources and homelessness rates, turning statistics into functional conversation pieces.