3d Footwear Patterns Design Software

5+ best shoe design software for Windows 10 [2021 Guide]

Radu Tyrsina has been a Windows fan ever since he got his first PC, a Pentium III (a monster at that time). For most of the kids of his age, the Internet was an... Read more

Updated: Aug 18, 2021

Posted: February 2021

A great shoe design software is imperative for creating a new and original line of footwear.
Your business will become more efficient and successful by using a sneaker design software.
The best footwear design software on our list is an excellent tool from Adobe.
Check our full selection as you will also find shoe pattern-making software for free download.

What are the best shoe design software for Windows 10

In order to be able to gain success in any business, it's crucial to make use of the best tools available.

Designing trendy shoes is much more comfortable with the help of shoe design software, and those who are looking for some top-quality shoe design tools have a lot of options to choose from these days.

We gathered five of the best shoe design tools, and we are listing their extensive sets of features and functionalities in order to help you make the best decision for your needs.

With high-quality software, you'll be able to create outstanding models and show off your creativity to the whole world.

Your customers as well are able to create their very own shoes using some of these tools that we'll present below.

What are the best shoe design tools for stunning footwear?

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator has everything that you might need from an online product design program. This is a Web-to-Print software that includes a lot of exciting features:

Your customers will be able to create customized and print-ready designs.
Your business' customers will get the chance to browse through a massive library of images, clipart, and texts to create personalized designs.
The program includes a lot of templates that offer your customers options to use multi-colored texts and multiple fonts.
Besides shoes, you can customize a lot more items with the help of this tool such as T-shirts, hats, bags and more.
You will be able to craft designs on any product that has a printable surface.

Adobe Illustrator is suitable even for a specialist with less experience as it offers a lot of training and online materials in order to create outstanding shoe designs.

If you want to transpose your product design from a paper sketch to a CAD designing tool, Adobe can help you, as it offers a lot of productive features for creating design patterns, colors in an interactive and creative way.

Adobe Illustrator will provide you with useful panels for creating fine corners for the shoe design (Corner Widget), separating shapes that afterward can be fulfilled with color.

You can also create elementary shapes (Shape Builder Tool), drawing a zipper and a zig-zag with Pattern Brush, and not at least designing patterns for the shoes.

As you can see, it is the perfect tool for choosing your product designing work.

Moreover, Adobe Illustrator is part of the Creative Cloud and you can use it freely with other apps like Photoshop, Indesign, Adobe XD, and Adobe After Effects in creating outstanding graphics.

Adobe Illustrator

You can design the perfect shoes with Adobe Illustrator by creating amazing shapes and defining unique lines.

CorelDraw Graphics Suite

Corel is a veteran in digital graphics and provides a wide range of tools, but CorelDraw Graphics Suite is one of the best tools that will assist you in modelling various 2D and 3D works.

Speaking about this, you can also create a shoe concept in this software in 2D and 3D. It will even help you print in 3D the shoes you have created in the software (at least the physical form, you can color them later).

Well, these are just a few of the main features, but you can do a lot more using CorelDraw Graphics Suite. If you plan to take this hobby on a business path – this tool will be your best friend.

Here is what this powerful design tool offers:

Easy-to-learn interface
Vectorize design elements
Use graphic ready-to-use templates
PDF/X export
Great performance and stability
Improved pixel workflow for pixel-perfect documents
Perfect for 3D printing design

CorelDraw Graphics Suite

CorelDraw Graphics Suite is the best 2D and 3D modeling software so it will be perfect for designing great-looking shoes.

AutoDesk Maya

While not exactly a dedicated tool for shoe design, Maya is one of the best design tools in general.

This feature-packed tool comes with everything you may ever need to design a good-looking pair of shoes for both men and women.

From the shape thanks to the 3D engine to the colors and patterns thanks to the texture support, Maya will become your best help in designing awesome footwear.

More so, your files can then be exported into a variety of formats for others to use as templates.

The fact that Maya is also a very popular CAD tool also means that even if you aren't used to using it, you won't have any problem finding someone who does.

All in all, it is a great CAD tool that can take designed common footwear to a whole new level, and even if you don't use it for that, you've just got your hands on one of the best 3D design tools on the market anyway.

Let's see some of its best features:

A wide variety of tools at your disposal
Can support all steps in designing a shoe, from the shape to the colors and patterns
It has the same familiar UI that all AutoDesk products are known for.
3D engine for perfect shapes of the shoes

AutoDesk Maya

Maya is a great CAD tool that can be used to create any 3D design from buildings and bridges to awesome shoes.

Fusion 360

Yet another AutoDesk product, Fusion360 makes for a CAD tool that can even be used for simple and unlikely tasks such as shoe design.

It features pretty much the same tools as AutoCAD or Maya, albeit in a more minimalized manner.

Fusion 360 is great for mechanical or technical designs, but its ability to sculpt artistic 3D models is very restricted, which makes it an even more beginner's version of AutoCAD.

On the flip side, students and teachers can get educational licenses that are free of charge, making this product extremely familiar to those that studied it.

Thus, you will never have problems finding someone capable of using it if you cannot do it yourself.

Take a look at some of its most important features:

Student licenses are free
Familiar AutoDesk interface
Great for minimal design techniques
Good for the more precise part of shoe creation (measurements, curvatures, etc.)

⇒ Get Fusion 360

inkXE Shoe Design Software

The inkXE shoe design software is an ideal tool tailored for businesses, and it deals with designing shoes and customizing their features according to every users' needs.

This program is compatible with all kinds of e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, Magento, OpenCart, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, and many more.

inkXE comes with preloaded design templates that allow you to design your shoes fast without having to actually create an artwork. You will be able to use various templates and edit them to get the right models.

This tool allows you to apply image filters, mask effects, and you can also vectorize uploaded images. There's also an irregular print area feature included in this program for sneakers.

inkXE will also allow you to add text with effects to make your design look more appealing.

There are more features such as admin functionalities and more included in the program, and you can check them all out on inkXE's official website.

Check out the best features that are included in this program:

The program consists of both basic and advanced features and functionalities for designing shoes.
This tool comes with an effortless installation process.
You will be able to enjoy lifetime support from inkXE team.
This tool provides the flexibility needed to use any printing method.
You will be able to customize the software according to your business's requirements.
You will also be able to remove background images and more unwanted design elements.
Switch between multiple printing methods according to your needs.
Save and share your designs.
Preview your shoes in 3D.

⇒ Get inkXE Shoe Design Software

Shoemaster

Shoemaster is a world-leading CAD/CAM system that provides 2D and 3D solutions for the footwear industry.

This program is designed by traditional shoemakers, and it offers solutions and tools required for the design, development, and engineering of various footwear.

You will be able to produce efficient and proportional 3D designs using corporate colors, components, and materials. With this tool, you can build seasonal ranges, and you will get virtual environments as well.

To find out more about this tool's functionalities and features and to discuss the options that you have available you are advised to contact Shoemaster via the Contact Us page from the official website.

Take a look at the most interesting features that are included in this program:

This is an innovative system that will reduce costs, improve quality and increase productivity as well.
Shoemaster Creative is the ideal solution for designers and development technicians.
This tool offers versatility and creativity combined with the accuracy of working on a 3D shoe.
You will also get the chance of reducing the costs and speeding the process by reducing the need for physical samples.

⇒ Get Shoemaster

Design Software Ninja

Design Software Ninja, from Magento, allows you to let your customers design or customize various products such as shoes but also more items including t-shirts, labels, letters, stickers, apparel, and more.

This tool is a bit different compared to the other ones from this list, but it's nonetheless useful. It's different because it will allow your customers to add both text and images on the products, resize, flip, rotate, and more.

Design Software Ninja comes with a friendly interface and design. You can check out more features that are packed in this tool by visiting the official website of Design Software Ninja.

Take a look at more exciting features that are included in this program below:

Your business' customers will be able to upload images and clipart from their own folders, socials media and so on.
Admins can also add flexible pricing.
Admins will be able to enable customization for any individual product or all the products.
You will get the chance to define a custom color palette or just to enable a full-color picker tool.
You can define customization options, and you'll receive the customized product details in the dashboard.

⇒ Get Design Software Ninja

No-Refresh Shoe Design Tool

No-Refresh Shoe Design Tool provides a shoe design program that comes with the efficiency of designing various shoes online.

The makers of this program claim that they entirely understand the need for customers to make designer shoes online according to their own preferences.

They also state that you can expect to earn massive revenues because this online shoe designing tool is compliant enough to provide easy handling to the end-users.

No-Refresh Shoe Design Tool comes with lots of options to select the perfect shoes and users will also be able to customize any part of the desired shoes according to their needs.

This program comes with a color box that provides varied options for colors to the users so that they will be able to create their own shoes. There is a pre-loaded library of basic designs, symbols, pictures, and more.

Check out more exciting features that are included in No-Refresh Shoe Design Tool:

You will get the chance to have a 3D preview of the footwear, and this will make sure that you'll get an excellent visualization.
This program is appreciated as well for its compatibility with lots of the current browsers and operating systems.
To be able to use this tool efficiently, users will not have to be advanced.
You will be able to install this tool effortlessly.

⇒ Get No-Refresh Shoe Design Tool

This is where our top shoe designing tools list comes to an end. Make sure to head over to all these program's official websites to be able to analyze more in-depth details on all these tools before making the right decision.

If you have any other suggestions or questions, feel free to reach in the comments section below.

Frequently Asked Questions

What software do shoe designers use?

Shoe designers use Adobe Creative Cloud apps, as they offer a wide range of designing elements for creating a unique product.
How do you render shoes in Illustrator?

You can use more programs in the process of designing shoes like Adobe Photoshop or Sketchbook, so the first thing is to create the shapes of the shoe.
How do you draw a sneaker book?

You can use a special book illustration design software like Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop or CorelDraw in order to draw a sneaker book that will contain shoe industry reference materials and more.