01 · Trail
Pro Ranger
The aggressive hiker. Heritage tread, trail-grip strap.
WORKSHOP · PROJECT P·04 · FOOTWEAR
SOURCE OUTDOOR · 2024
RANGE · 04 STYLES
FILE · GOB-04
RANGE · 4 STYLESYEAR · 2024
Industrial design · Footwear
Gobi 2.0.
A modern facelift to one of SOURCE's most iconic sandals. Single hiker became a small family — for trail, water, and city — without losing the original's bite.
Update an icon. Without breaking it.
The original Gobi is one of SOURCE's most recognisable products — an aggressive trail sandal with a passionate following since the late 1980s. The brief was to update it for a new decade, and to expand it into a small family that could carry the same DNA across trail, water, and city.
The studio kept the bite and the silhouette of the original, then redrew the strap geometry, the buckle hardware, and the sole tread for current materials and current feet. From one hiker, the line grew to four — each style sharing the same backbone, each tuned for a different terrain.
[TBD: the design move that defined the update — strap layout, the buckle decision, the moment that kept the original's bite.]
Old Gobi to new.
One family. Four terrains.
02 · Water
Galactic
Quick-drying lining, water-shedding strap geometry.
03 · Extreme
Extreme
Reinforced toe, locking buckle, expedition-grade.
04 · City
Men
Quieter colour, slimmer strap, city-friendly profile.
Brief to shelves.
Discover
Audit of the original. Field interviews with long-time Gobi wearers — what to preserve, what to update.
Sketch & sample
Strap geometry, buckle hardware, sole tread redrawn. Hand samples in foam.
CMF & range
Four colourways, four terrains, one shared backbone — different finishes, same DNA.
Tooling
Sole mould transfer, supplier alignment on the new strap webbing and the buckle hardware.
On shelves
Launched 2024. The line is in stores; the original Gobi keeps its place beside it.
№ 05 · on the process
Don't break what already works.
The risk in updating an icon is that you replace something that already works with something cleverer that does not. The original Gobi was perfect for what it was. The 2.0 had to add to it without subtracting from it.
The studio kept the silhouette and the bite, then earned every new line — the strap layout, the buckle, the sole tread — by making them better at the original's job, not different from it. The four-style range followed the same logic: same DNA, different terrain.
[TBD: the original Gobi wearer who tried 2.0 first, the moment that confirmed the direction.]
№ 06 · next project
Multi-cultural Moka Pot→
All work →