Teams from each of the four Lauderdale County high schools presented shoe designs to representatives from shoe manufacturer Shloop, education officials and community leaders on Tuesday as they compete to have their design brought to life.

Students from Clarkdale, Northeast, Southeast and West Lauderdale gave their pitch in a Shark Tank style format, answering questions about market research, shoe construction, advertising strategies and more.

Rob Smith, career and technical education director for Lauderdale County School District, said the teams have been working hard since the beginning of the year to take their shoe designs from ideas to the point where they can become real products.

“This conceptual idea came out a few months ago, at the very beginning of the school year actually, to be able to create a shoe through the Shloop industry,” he said. “And the more we got to thinking about it, the more we realized this is something we really need to focus on to be able to connect our students with our local industry and our local employers.”

The project included multiple businesses and industries in the Meridian and Lauderdale County areas in addition to Shloop, Smith said. Also included in the project are Peavey Electronics, Meridian Community College’s Workforce Development Center, Meridian Main Street and other organizations.

Theresa Radcliff, with MCC’s Workforce Development Center, who helped students with their designs, said the teams had to demonstrate entrepreneurship and strong problem solving skills in coming up with their designs, developing their product and making their pitch to first their schools and then to the community judges.

“They had to identify a problem. They had to figure out a statistic to go with that problem,” she said. “Then they had to figure out how they were going to address the problem with their shoe, and then they had to put together a marketing plan, how they had identified their target market.”

Radcliff said her day-to-day job focuses on introducing advanced manufacturing, and working on this project allowed students to get an inside look at manufacturing going on right in Meridian.

Southeast Lauderdale students decided to focus their efforts on healthcare and the long hours many in nursing and other healthcare professions spend on their feet. The shoe featured a built in pedometer to help track how far the wearer has traveled, as well as breathable fabric and arch support to help with foot pain.

Northeast Lauderdale’s design focused on blue collar workers and those in the trades, who typically need to wear some kind of steel-toe boot. Instead of heavy steel, the team chose to use a non-newtonian fluid that acts as a solid material when sudden force is applied. The fluid, called oobleck, coupled with recycled kevlar, is intended to provide the wearer with the same protection as steel-toe boots without the additional weight.

While rival schools focused on solving physical issues, Clarkdale’s team chose to put their shoe design to work tackling high rates of depression among teens. The leather, converse-style shoes are designed with embroidered flowers and scripture to both encourage those who are feeling down and draw attention to mental health.

West Lauderdale’s team drew from their knowledge of high school athletics to design a new and improved cleat for children and teens. The faux leather shoe with built in sock around the ankle is intended to be both resistant to the elements and protective to the wearer. The team also chose to go with rubber cleats instead of metal or plastic for safety.

Andrea Williams, communications director for Lauderdale County School District, said the panel of judges will announce their winner at an event set for Tuesday at The Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience. The winning team’s design will then be brought to life with a custom prototype made by Shloop.

Smith said he wanted to thank Shloop and all of the industry and community partners who took part in the contest and looked forward to seeing the partnership continue and grow moving forward.

“I think we need to expand, and I would love to invite other industries on board,” he said. “I think we can make more connections in a lot more ways as well, but yes, we need to expand upon this in the future.”