Benjamin Majster: Last Engineers supports brands to achieve their sustainability goals

In part 1 of our interview with Benjamin Majster, we talked about the birth of the startup and its focus on assisting brands to increase customer satisfaction by ensuring consistent fit and reducing product returns. In this part 2, we shift the conversation towards coordination between footwear design and production, how Last Engineers helps brands achieve their sustainability goals and the startup’s next steps.

Seamless coordination between design and production teams is critical in the footwear industry to ensure a smooth transition from concept to manufacturing. Benjamin shares that “Last Engineers acts as a centralised platform where design and production teams can work from a single, unified source of truth”. By integrating all relevant information into a single system, the platform eliminates inefficiencies that often arise from working with fragmented data, ensuring greater alignment between teams.

“Our platform’s 3D analysis and visualisation tools allow teams to view, compare and discuss lasts in a shared, interactive environment”. Designers can assess how modifications impact fit, while production teams can immediately understand the necessary adjustments, reducing back-and-forth exchanges and accelerating decision-making. 

Brand-specific fit standards can also be embedded directly into the platform, allowing all stakeholders to verify that each last meets predefined requirements before moving into production. Within this framework, “quality control becomes a shared responsibility, ensuring both designers and production teams are aligned on the same goals”, the Founder highlights.

Last Engineers contributes to sustainability efforts by minimising the reliance on physical prototypes through advanced 3D analysis and simulation tools. By allowing “brands to test and optimise lasts digitally before production begins, cutting down on material waste, energy use and production time”. According to Benjamin, this approach improves resource efficiency and optimises designs before reaching the manufacturing stage.

Beyond prototyping, Last Engineers enhances fit accuracy by integrating real foot scan data into the last development process. “This reduces waste from defective products, limits overproduction and minimises returns”, he explains.

“Our platform”– he continues –, “also helps brands build in-house expertise around fit, reducing reliance on external suppliers”, which reduces dependence on external suppliers and cuts down on transportation emissions associated with shipping prototypes back and forth.

“The future of Last Engineers is focused on growth, innovation and deeper integration with the footwear industry’s evolving needs. We are expanding our platform’s capabilities to further support customisation, data-driven design and direct-to-consumer experiences”, the Founder shares.

The company is increasing collaborations with brands of all sizes, from independent labels to major global players across luxury, sports and casual footwear. With existing clients in France, the US, Germany, Turkey and China, the startup aims to establish itself as a global standard for last-making and fit optimisation. 

Additionally, a key priority is to expand Last Engineers' integration with major foot scanning companies. "These companies possess vast amounts of foot data and high-quality hardware, and the goal is to bring our technology and software into the supply chain", Benjamin shares. This would allow the French startup to transform these companies' data into actionable insights for product developers at brands.