Susanna Zampieri is an Italian footwear designer specialising in 3D footwear design, as well as an entrepreneur and educator.
Her creative path began around fifteen years ago in jewellery and goldsmithing, where she trained and worked as an artisan for about five years, making jewellery entirely by hand. That is where she developed a deep understanding of materials, texture and craftsmanship, and a hands-on, material-driven approach to design.
From that artisanal foundation she moved gradually into design proper, always keeping a strong focus on the relationship between form, material and process.
In 2016 came the decisive shift into footwear: a project of jewellery applied to shoes caught the attention of the footwear industry and opened the door to a new creative world. From then on she specialised in shoe design, bringing her goldsmithing and product experience into footwear.
Over the years she built a solid career as a designer, working across both traditional and digital development, until she became a 3D footwear design specialist, integrating sketching, product development and digital modelling. In parallel she was invited to speak at several industry events, sharing her experience on design and the digital evolution of footwear.
In time she went beyond designing for brands: she turned her experience into a real ecosystem, combining design, education, content and personal branding, with the goal of making digital design more accessible and job-ready.
Between 2025 and 2026 she structured and launched the footwear brand Cocoawant and the 3DFootwear Academy, a learning platform dedicated to 3D footwear design: not just to teach a piece of software, but to pass on a complete method for breaking into the industry, from design thinking to technical execution. Alongside training, she advises footwear companies and brands on virtual prototyping, introducing 3D and AI-based workflows that cut time, cost and inefficiency in product development.
