Case Study: Wolverine Worldwide, Inc. achieves 60% faster design cycles and 50% lower development costs with SolidWorks

Winning the Footwear Development Race With SolidWorks Premium

Wolverine Worldwide Inc, a global footwear manufacturer with brands like Hush Puppies and Merrell, needed to accelerate and expand product development while lowering costs and handling nonuniform grading challenges. After finding their previous 3D CAD system costly and hard to use, they adopted SolidWorks Premium for its integrated surfacing, visualization, and simulation tools.

Using SolidWorks Premium, Wolverine streamlined design changes (using tools like the Deform command), increased virtual prototyping, and improved material and performance analysis. The result: design cycles shortened by 60%, development costs cut by 50%, material usage reduced by 50% (about one pound less rubber per pair on one boot), and a 200% expansion of the product line, with instances of $10–15k saved by simulating prototypes instead of building physical ones.

Wolverine Worldwide Inc

Chris Peterson

Manager