Each January, Europe’s largest sporting trade show called ISPO features The Brand New Awards sponsored by CoolMax, DuPont, and Volvo. While often the winners have to do with innovations in sporting hardgoods particularly in winter sports, many winners also come from new designs and innovations in the technology of fabrics. One of this year’s winners, to be announced at the show January 27-30, 2008, in Munich, is a new sneaker design from Nat-2 for women called the 2-in-1 shoes.

2-in-1’s look like extra-high hightop Converse sneaks in their full form, but if you’re into something lower, you can take down the height and even unzip the sole to create a sneaker-slip-on. While the sneakers totally look like something we’ve seen before and the name lacks in sneaker-culture savvy, the innovation in the design modifications deserve props and raise the question of why, for example, Converse or Nike or Vans didn’t do this before.

Winners of the Brand New Awards are featured in a separate area on the trade show floor during ISPO, as well as announced during the Volvo Design Forum, a seminar and event series which launches the show each January. Label Networks was a presenter at the 2005 Volvo Design Awards, along with Jake Burton Carpenter and Donna Carpenter from Burton, Heidi and Runar Omarsson from Nikita, among others noted for trendsetting design and knowledge in a series of presentations featuring youth culture and sports.