Case Studies

Designing AI Sneakers at Fat Joe's UP NYC Store

Designing AI Sneakers at Fat Joe's UP NYC Store

UP NYC is known around New York City as a premier clothing and shoe store, started in 2016 by well-known hip hop artist and sneaker mogul “Fat Joe” Cartagena. Since then, they have begun holding community classes and events for kids in their multi-use space. ScholarStem was given the opportunity to partner with UP NYC and give back to the community that produced artists and entrepreneurs like Fat Joe. We introduced AI Art to allow students to design the shoes of their dreams and view them in virtual reality (VR).

Scope

  • 3-8th grade students meeting for 2-hour Saturday class
  • Used Chromebooks and Stable Diffusion via Discord

Coursework

  • Using and learning AI generation to design custom sneakers
  • Creating walkable stores in Virtual Reality to showcase designs

Outcomes

  • Gained experience with new technology like generative AI
  • Familiarity and experience with CoSpaces VR
  • Introduced product design concepts

The Challenge

AI tools are new technologies that are developing more every day, and bringing these cutting edge experiences into our programs is key to our teaching philosophy. Having an age appropriate and exciting curriculum designed around emerging tech is what keeps our classes fresh and engaging for our students and instructors! Input assisted AI image generation turned out to be a great way to introduce these ideas, and have students see immediately the results of their creative process.

The Plan

With AI becoming more common in our day-to-day lives, developing quality curriculum to give students experience with these new technologies is key. To introduce AI in a way that students are excited about is even better, helping them think about how new technology is used, and how they might use it themselves in the future. The students’ shoes and virtual stores were amazing, showing both their creativity and skill, as well as the power and potential of these new tools!

From all accounts, the students loved this AI class!

Courtnee O.

Education Coordinator, UP NYC

Highlights

VR + AI Sneaker Store

After making their shoe designs, students created their own virtual store to display their shoes! Using CoSpaces VR, these students were able to digitally explore and experience each other's unique ideas.

Walk through this store yourself!

Najabi's AI Pink and Blue 4s

Najabi used Stable Diffusion to design her fantasy sneakers, gorgeous pink and blue Jordan 4s. We hope she's able to turn this sneaker design into a reality!

Conclusion

With AI becoming more common in our day-to-day lives, developing quality curriculum to give students experience with these new technologies is key. To introduce AI in a way that students are excited about is even better, helping them think about how new technology is used, and how they might use it themselves in the future. The students’ shoes and virtual stores were amazing, showing both their creativity and skill, as well as the power and potential of these new tools!

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