The revolution in Ecuadorian shoe industry represents a big challenge because of the proliferation of imported products. This tariff advantage put the Ecuadorian entrepreneurs in a comfort zone, evidencing a stagnation in the evolution of products with differentiation strategies in opposition to globalized products. To this problem are added limiting factors such as raw materials and imported inputs. The current work studies the situation of the Ecuadorian entrepreneurs of the National Camera of Footwear in the Tungurahua province in order to know its reality and determine strengths and weaknesses of the sector and strategies to promote the productive matrix of Ecuador. The research exposes the impact that a proposed product can have from a strategic vision of differentiation through sustainability of Ecuadorian footwear.

The leather and footwear cluster in Tungurahua state has a main role in the country’s production chain, supplying 76% of the country’s tanned hides for the textile, footwear, and furniture industries, among others. The processes involved in leather tanning generate liquid, gaseous, and solid waste, the latter including the shavings from the leather trimming process, which, due to their composition and volume, are compressed and disposed of in sanitary landfills. Through Strategic Design and circular processes, as axes of change in production, new processes and strategies are established for the creation of products derived from the reuse of tannery waste; as a result, a decorative block is obtained for the design of architectural spaces with dimensions of 150 × 75 × 355 mm, 300 g in weight, and a compressive strength of 15.72 MPa. This is subjected to physicochemical tests for its validation.

Este artículo es el resultado de una investigación realizada en la parroquia la Matriz de la ciudad de Ambato - Ecuador, se pretende reflexionar sobre las consecuencias existentes en los usos y los desusos del espacio público a partir de la implementación de una estética civilizatoria en la planificación de las ciudades. Se parte de la necesidad de entender el divorcio entre la planificación urbana de los organismos municipales, y los imaginarios construidos en las comunidades en torno a los espacios públicos. El abordaje metodológico consiste en la aplicación de una etnografía de sentido comunitario en ocho espacios públicos para comprender los usos históricos comunitarios de los espacios, así como desusos a los que han sido sometidos a partir de obras de transformación urbana. El análisis permite reflexionar en clave política la necesidad de homogeneizar el espacio público, y, por tanto, entender al espacio público como un instrumento del discurso ideológico del capitalismo.

Currently, the Ecuadorian footwear industry faces competitiveness problems with products that enter the country with advantages in terms of quality, design, and price, factors that have captured the preference of local consumers. The purpose of this work is to highlight the value of design in the footwear industry in Ecuador, contributing with a proposal focused on ethnic fashion, using typical and traditional Ecuadorian elements and forms as a strategy of differentiation in the generation of products with identity, which allow competitiveness within the national market and subsequently international. For this purpose, Etnika was born, a brand of traditional Ecuadorian women's casual footwear, that proposes the application of a business model focused on “slow fashion” based on a specific market study, which has shown preference in aspects that involve factors such as new materials, design ethics, eco-friendly manufacturing processes, fair trade, quality, and added value.