UN/TIED SHOES
Un/tied Shoes is an interactive story about Evie Ruddy’s experience growing up genderqueer, having never quite felt like a girl or a boy. Produced in conjunction with the National Film Board of Canada, this project presents as a seemingly real e-commerce website for a new brand of shoes. Visitors arrive on the landing page where they must decide to browse shoe styles by choosing “men” or “women”, a common fashion industry barrier regularly faced by non-binary people. Instead, no matter which choice is selected, visitors will find the same 9 shoes. Each shoe product detail page contains a chapter in Evie’s first-person account of self-actualization.
With Evie as our guide, Un/tied Shoes invites us to question deep-rooted social and gender codes and to encourage a future where the fashion industry offers more options, fewer labels and an inclusive experience so that all people can have an outward expression that reflects how they feel on the inside.
This project included creating the fictional shoe company’s brand and custom e-commerce website along with concepting and art directing a family of product and lifestyle photography to accompany each of Evie’s stories.
Awards and Recognition
Digital Dozen - Breakthroughs in Storytelling Award Winner (Columbia University School of the Arts)
Canadian Screen Award Nominee - Best Production, Interactive
Cleveland International Film Festival - Perspectives exhibition for immersive storytelling (Selection)
Featured on CBC Radio and Global News
Each of the 9 shoes had a product detail page which contained Evie’s story along with supporting visuals.
The final shoe “The Evie” reveals the project’s author to the viewers.
The shopping cart flow revealed common pain points for non-binary and transgender shoppers such as the lack of appropriate sizes and gendered sizing charts.
Site Tour
Social Ads
To market the project we created a series of Facebook ads, reels and Instagram stories advertising the shoe company. We also had an Instagram account where viewers could upload and share selfies wearing the shoes that best expressed themselves, which were featured on the website.
Credits: Produced by Nicholas Klassen for the National Film Board of Canada, Written by Evie Ruddy, Art Direction and Design by Tracey Lebedovich, Photography by Lauren Zbarsky, Project Management by Jasmine Pullukatt, and Built by We the Collective.