These boots were a limited edition created by Addidas and Salomon.

Now you can earn credit for contributing to The Boot Project.

We have established a credit system for the site. You can use your credits to BUY real items from our site.

Right now, each credit has a cash equivalent of $.10.

The more credit you get the more stuff you can
BUY WITH YOUR POINTS!

Here is how it works...

1 credit for inviting a friend
5 credits for registering
5 credits for images
10 credits if that person joins
10 credits for posts

In addition, you will get a 10% credit for every post that someone you invite makes!

Think Monavie...(You're in at the ground floor son.)
Only this is a pyramid built on learning.

That means if you invite a friend and they join and post, you get 10% of all of their points too.

We are working on getting our store up and running, but so far we have these products that can be earned by contributing to this site.

70 points Bar of SNOWBOARD MAGAZINE Wax
100 points - SNOWBOARD MAGAZINE one year subscription
200 points SNOWBOARD MAGAZINE T-Shirt
300 points SNOWBOARD MAGAZINE New Era Hat
300 points - The Boot Project LTD. T-Shirt Edition 1
500 points - The Boot Project LTD Edition Premium Fitted Hat
700 points Windells Premium Zip Sweat Shirt
5000 points Stepchild Mike Ranquet 158 Snowboard

Good luck and let those points stack up!

We will be setting up a way to cash these points in for swag and snowboarding gear.

Here is the first first product you can earn...
Reach 500 points and get a limited edition The Boot Project shirt.

We will be looking for additional sponsors for the site to help provide prizes for our most prized users.

If you are interested in sponsoring The Boot Project with some gear please write: mark@mediaknievel.com

Do you ever get the feeling that you are living in a world where Capitalism governs Democracy? It can be pretty frustrating knowing that your voice and desires are stifled by the politics and revenue needs of big business. I think most people are pretty much fed up with it all. Unfortunately for the better part of the Industrial Revolution, the public has been left with precious few opportunities to truly affect the free market. You will always hear people talk about voting with your dollar. Which is fine, if you have a lot of dollars to vote with. Most of us are scraping by, making ends beat, whether it is putting clothes on our kids or putting a season's pass in our pocket. In the end, it becomes very difficult to actually affect the free market.

I know a lot of people feel like the current state of the snowboarding industry is not a true representation of what the true soul of the sport is. The argument over what the true soul of snowboarding is could go on and on with no true agreement on the answer. However, I would say that most people would agree that the soul lies with the riders; the people that are out there just riding for the love of it. So if you want to put the soul back in snowboarding you need to get the riders in the process, put the knowledge in their hands, get their voices heard, get their ideas built, and let them take ownership of the sport they love. And this is where the open source idea takes hold.

So what is Open Source?

Open Source was originally coined to describe the creation of software by an online collaborative community. However, it is increasingly being used to describe any collaborative process. Open source succeeds because it draws on a huge pool of resources, innovation can occur faster than behind the closed doors of the conventional company R&D lab. There are numerous examples of successful projects in the internet world, such as Mozilla Firefox, MySQL, and Wikipedia.

Here is a video of Jimmy Wales describing the Wikipedia structure.

But does it apply to real products?

The application of open source principles to physical products is often referred to as Open Design. Wikipedia describes this process as follows:
Open design is the application of open source methods to the creation of physical products, machines and systems. People apply their skills and time to projects for the common good, perhaps where funding or commercial interest is lacking, for developing countries or to help to spread ecological or cheaper technologies. At the other end of the scale, open design may provide a framework for developing very advanced projects and technologies that might be beyond the resource of any one company or country and involve people who, without the copyleft mechanism, might not otherwise collaborate.

The basic process flows for open versus closed design are shown below.

You Commie Bastards
Open source definitely contains elements of the communist ideals but is very different. The principle ideal of open source is distribution of knowledge. People are free to utilize this knowledge for their own benefit, both intellectually and monetarily. There are many mechanisms with the open source ideal for profiting, just not in the traditional sense.

Copyleft

You are allowed to copy, recast, transform, adapt, perform, record or translate a share-alike copyrighted work, however doing so creates a "derived work" on which share-alike copyright restrictions are automatically imposed. This is the "share and share alike" aspect of copyleft, even if those copyright restrictions are not explicitly stated

While you may be inclined to view this as releasing your right to the idea, I see it as liberating you from the fear that someone else will protect your idea and solely profit. The way I look at it, is that you are taking the stance that innovation comes before the dollar. That you will sacrifice the slim chance of getting rich for the opportunity to advance technology. You can feel free to discuss your ideas and thoughts openly without free of them be stolen and protected.

Of course the hope is always there that you will indeed make some ching at the end of the day.

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I will try to keep adding to this as I learn more. Feel free to add any information you may have.

We are leaving it up to the community to creat the logo and branding for The Boot Project...

The current branding was created fairly quickly with the full intention of throwing the identity project to the community to see if we get a better result.

All submissions must be in jpeg format but also be editable vector artwork.

The winner of the identity will have his branding used throughout the site, on all merchandise and maybe on some boots.

There will also be a prize for the givawaywhich will be announced shortly.

The graphic identity will look at the first 25 contributions and decide which will be the new look for The Boot Project.

Here are a couple of videos to watch...

Bryan Peterson 60 Second Design Process

An designer uses open source tools and discusses his process...

Here is a good spot to recommend reading materials...feel free to add any good reading that can contribute to this site.

Here's the one that inspired The Boot Project

By Design by Ralph Caplan

(As named by Drago.)

This topic is for posting reviews of the boots you used last season.

Feel free to add any relevant information - photos and commentary both good and bad. Also, any durability issues should be addressed here.

Below is a suggested format to write reviews...

Boot Company
Model Name
What I like about these boots
What I dislike about these boots
Comments on Durability
I would buy boots like this again (yes or no answer)

Yes

No

Burton

Celsius

DC

Flow

Forum

K2

Nitro

Northwave

Ride

Rome

Rossignol

Salomon

Thirty Two

Vans

Atomic

Welcome to The Boot Project

The Boot Project is an experience based educational experiment based on the simple idea that if you learn about things you love, learning becomes fun!

The Boot Project is a community based website/ virtual snowboard company. Hands on application of industrial design, graphic design, marketing and manufacturing.

Everyone is welcome to participate!
More opinions and ideas will make The Boot Project blossom. Please feel free to post comments and to Register as a member of the community.

The Boot Project is based on the design process of Charles Eames, one of the most acclaimed industrial designer in American history. Click Here to find out more about the Eames design process.

F.A.Q.
What is The Boot Project?
The Boot Project is a virtual snowboard brand, dedicated to making the best possible product, all virtually. All 'corporate' communications will take place on this open forum with the goal of teaching the snowboarding public more about what goes into snowboard boots.

Who is The Boot Project for?
The Boot Project is for everyone - students, teachers, snowboarders and people interested in industrial design. The Boot Project's goal is to teach people about a proven industrial design process and applying it to an area that is of interest.

Beyond process, The Boot Project seeks to create a way for people of experience and inexperience to have open and free communication about a mutual interest.

How do I get involved?
Getting involved is simple - register as a user of this website. Click Here to register a new user account. THen add your feedback, pictures and ideas to this web based snowboard/design community.

If you are a teacher or involved in the education field, and want to get involved please write: mark@mediaknievel.com

Why do The Boot Project?
The big idea behind The Boot Project is teaching people about what they love. If you learn about what you like, then learning becomes fun.

Instead of studying 'widgets,' The Boot Project takes a real, breathing passion and seeks to harness it as a learning experience.

Why boots?
Survey results concluded that boots are the most underdeveloped product in the sport of snowboarding - that and foot pain is still an everyday reality for most riders. In addition, boots are the piece of gear most likely to deteriorate for hardcore riders.

Who is behind all of this?
Please check out Media Knievel for more information and background information. The Boot Project is also an extension of Windells Camps.