Header: Courtesy of Flo Group
Sandora is an award-winning running shoe built from two main parts: a knitted mesh upper and a sculpted foam midsole. It was designed for Lumberjack by an in‑house team at Flo Group in Turkey, with İsmail Caner Akbacak as lead designer and a design team comprised of Yankı Alper, Asya Merzuk, Nurbanu Düzenli and Yusuf Erdem Kaplan. Sandora is the winner of the “Sportswear Design – Footwear” category at the FIT Sport Design Awards.
Desert running
The brief was simple: it called for “desert running”. With this in mind, the team used the shape of shifting dunes as a reference for the shoe, which can be seen in both the shape of the sole and the colour of the upper. Everything else on the shoe was designed to ensure it fits the demands of running on hot, loose ground: airflow, low weight and a sole that provides enough support on each step.
Recycled materials
The upper is made from recycled mesh yarns, which is to say, yarn spun from reclaimed material and then knitted into an open, net‑like fabric. The openings let air pass through the shoe while the foot is moving, and the knit itself weighs very little, so the shoe stays light without needing panels or overlays to hold its shape. Breathability was the main focus here, since heat builds up quickly inside a closed running shoe.
Underfoot, the midsole is moulded from phylon, also made from recycled material. Phylon is a foam produced by heating and compressing EVA pellets twice over, which makes it lighter and denser than normal foam and gives it a smoother finish. The team shaped it to resemble the curves found in dunes, a shape that, actually, also helps with performance: the foam compresses under the runner’s weight and pushes back as the foot lifts, returning part of the energy of each stride.
The colours that dress the shoe are those found in the desert: warm sand tones. Sand‑coloured mesh also hides dust better than white, a small advantage on the kind of ground the shoe is meant for.
Recycled content in both the upper and the midsole is what supported the shoe’s passage through multiple phases of the FIT competition, as, in 2026, the judging process leaned heavily towards environmental responsibility.
Project information
Company/Firm: Flo Group
Brand Name: Lumberjack
Lead Designer: İsmail Caner Akbacak
Design Team: Yankı Alper, Asya Merzuk, Nurbanu Düzenli, Yusuf Erdem Kaplan
