Modern-day perception of historic footwear and its links to preference

The importance of emotion in consumer preference is explored in the subject of Kansei Engineering. The Kansei methodology has been successfully adopted by many large companies in recent years. Currently, a European Union Fifth framework project called 'Kensys' (Kansei Engineering System) is being implemented to look at the application of Kansei engineering in the field of footwear. The Kensys project is being conducted in collaboration with several SMEs and this paper reports a study that has been carried out with one of the SMEs who designs and makes reproduction historic and specialist footwear. In addition, respondent views on 'real' products from history and reproduction footwear are compared. We report on the views of respondents in general and look at gender differences, the comparison of non-experts' views versus experts' views and we also look at differences due to age. The study was carried out in the UK and in Spain. The views in both counties are compared.