Yanko Design’s Design Mindset podcast continues to carve out a thoughtful space for conversations around creativity, innovation, and the ideas shaping the future of design. Now at Episode 22, the weekly podcast is steadily building a strong voice of its own by focusing not just on finished products, but on the processes, philosophies, and experiments behind them. Powered by Zawa, this latest episode turns its attention to a fascinating tension in contemporary design: as AI becomes more embedded in creative workflows, where does human originality begin, and what happens when the most forward-looking idea starts with something as ancient as clay?
That question drives host Radhika Seth’s conversation with Ben Weiss, CEO of Syntilay, a company already known for pushing footwear into unfamiliar territory through AI, 3D printing, and custom-fit production. In this episode, Weiss unpacks the making of the Skin shoe, a project that began with artist Sebastian ErraZuriz sculpting directly around his foot before the form was scanned, translated, and turned into wearable footwear. The result is not just a new shoe, but a new argument for how design can begin, who gets to author it, and why technology may be most powerful when it supports human expression rather than replacing it.
Starting with Clay Instead of Software
The most striking part of the Skin shoe story is that it did not begin with a digital tool, a design brief, or a manufacturing constraint. It began with clay in the hands of an artist, and for Ben Weiss, that starting point changed everything about the outcome. As he explains, “People kept asking us, why start with clay? Why not just open a design software and begin, you know, kind of like the typical path for making shoes. And the answer is because a computer has an idea and some predetermined steps. But when you start with an art form, it’s entirely original.” That distinction becomes the foundation of the entire episode.
Weiss makes it clear that the goal was not simply to make a shoe in an unusual way. It was to let an artist enter footwear authentically, using his own medium and instincts instead of adapting to the usual industrial process. Sebastian ErraZuriz sculpted around his own foot in a w†ay that was, as Weiss describes it, “very free flowing,” with no predetermined expectations about what a shoe should look like. That is also why the final product feels less like a sneaker and more like something anatomical, intimate, and expressive, a piece of wearable sculpture rather than a conventional consumer product.
Turning Sculpture into a Wearable, Custom Fit Shoe
Once the clay sculpture was complete, Syntilay had to solve the difficult problem of turning a tactile, hand-made object into something that could actually be worn. Weiss acknowledges that some detail is always at risk in the translation from physical object to digital file, but preserving the original character of the sculpture was a key priority throughout. “Cause you lose some detailing, but you know you try to capture it as best as you can,” he says, before noting that the final printed shoe still retains much of the fine surface texture and hand-made quality of the original piece.
What makes the process especially interesting is that the artistic form is largely preserved on the outside, while most of the personalization happens on the inside. Using more than 5,000 data points captured from a phone scan or in-person fitting, Syntilay adjusts the internal geometry of the shoe to fit each customer’s foot without distorting the sculpture itself. Weiss explains, “The key is is not changing the outside structure that much so it distorts what the shoe looks like. In this case, what this piece of art looks like on your feet, um, and while also providing a good fit experience. So most of the changes are happening on the inside.” That balance between fidelity and function is what allows the shoe to remain art-led while still being wearable.
Ben Weiss on AI, Human Craft, and What Innovation Actually Means
Although the episode title sets up a contrast between clay and AI, Weiss is not arguing against technology. His view is more layered, and more useful, because he sees AI as a tool that can support creativity without becoming the sole source of it. “AI is going to be a great augmenter, um, maybe that’s not the best word, but a great kind of helper for humans,” he says. He goes on to describe a future in which designers sometimes use tools, sometimes choose not to, and build workflows based on what makes the most sense for the idea rather than on ideology alone.
That mindset also shapes how Syntilay positions itself as a brand. Weiss points out that the company has already explored highly automated footwear, but the Skin shoe takes the opposite route by placing the human hand at the very beginning of the process. For him, the bigger point is experimentation. Footwear, he argues, has become too comfortable with minor updates, surface-level collaborations, and familiar formulas. His response is blunt and memorable: “A lot of collaborations today are new embroidery on the shoe, different colors. It’s nice, But like when you can take an actual clay sculpture that somebody made around their foot and make it something you can wear. I mean that’s next level.” Innovation, in this framing, is not about choosing between AI and craft, but about creating conditions for truly new ideas to emerge.
Storytelling, Authorship, and Why the Human Element Still Matters
One of the strongest ideas in the conversation is that the Skin shoe is not just a design object, but a story that could only exist because of its human origin. Weiss sees that as increasingly important in a design landscape crowded with AI-generated outputs and endless visual sameness. “The story of the skin shoe is is a great story,” he says, pointing to the way Syntilay documents the journey from clay sculpture to 3D file to finished shoe. For him, storytelling is not decoration added after the fact, but a core part of how a product communicates meaning and builds resonance with people.
That same human-first logic also shapes how Weiss thinks about authorship. When asked who designed the shoe, he resists reducing it to one name, instead crediting both Sebastian, who created the sculpture, and Pablo, who translated the scan into a printable product. “So I would say it’s designed by two people,” he says, acknowledging that the future of artist-led footwear may depend on this kind of collaboration between conceptual creator and technical designer. He also notes that stories like these matter because they cannot simply be fabricated by a machine, adding that “storytelling is is a really significant moat because there are some stories that AI can just doesn’t have.” In other words, the human element is not just visible in the object, but embedded in the narrative around it.
Joe Foster’s Influence and Ben Weiss’s Bigger Design Philosophy
Another compelling layer in the episode is Weiss’s reflection on working with Joe Foster, Reebok’s cofounder, whose decades of experience have shaped the way Syntilay thinks about product. Weiss describes Foster as someone who still approaches design with energy, curiosity, and a strong belief that the work should remain enjoyable. But the deeper lesson comes from Foster’s idea of “vis tech,” or visible technology, the principle that innovation should not be hidden beneath the surface. Customers should be able to look at a product and immediately understand that it is doing something different. That philosophy clearly runs through Syntilay’s work, from the pod-based structure of other models to the unmistakably sculptural silhouette of Skin.
Weiss also shares a broader set of lessons that go beyond this one project. He admits that early on, he had not fully figured out how to optimize footwear for printing cost while balancing comfort, and that learning came through iteration rather than certainty. He is equally clear about what AI companies often get wrong when entering established creative fields, saying the most common mistake is “losing the authenticity and respecting the people that come before you.” Still, his most revealing line comes near the end of the episode, when he is asked to define the future of design. His answer is simple and sharp: “It’s about giving people more opportunities to design.” That may be the clearest summary of both the Skin shoe and Syntilay’s larger ambition, opening the category to artists, creators, and new forms of authorship that conventional design systems have historically left out.
Design Mindset drops every week on Yanko Design. Catch Episode 22 in full wherever you listen to podcasts.
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