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How to make 3d printed shoes
One, Two, 3D Print Your Own Shoe-in Any Style You See Fit, from Sneakers to Sandals - 3DPrint.com
While 3D printing a pair of shoes might sound like a simple enough feat these days, the idea that the basic designer now has the tools to pull this off is something we’ve all been looking toward. The actual ability to 3D print a product like shoes is also notable–and exciting–on several levels.
One, shoes are a basic need in life, so being able to make a normal pair (as opposed to an outrageous one-off haute couture work of art to be seen on the runway) at home or in the workshop offers substantial self-sustainability we have not known previously. Two, digital design offers us the incredible capability to edit, tweak, and customize on a whim–or make a size change–meaning we can change the style according to mood–or go up in measurements as children grow, not to mention the fact that they can be included in style brainstorming. Lastly–but definitely not least–imagine the amounts of money that can be saved while we also get a better fit and hopefully better or equal quality as well.
This is exciting, but there’s one problem. Making your own 3D printed shoes might be possible, but it’s not easy. This is the latest news in from student designer and Instructables member iwillspy13, who has made several fairly complicated 3D printed projects (shown on his Instructables page) previously. Deciding to design and produce a 3D printed sneaker for his final project in a product design class ended up being quite the challenge, but he managed to pull it off, and he gives us guidelines on how to do the same.
“…it took a long time and a lot of hard work. So this is not a weekend project, this will take you awhile,” said iwillspy13. “But the effort is totally worth it. The satisfaction you’ll get from creating something from nothing, and then being able to put that something to use is unparalleled.”
Note that iwillspy13 also entered his 3D printed shoes in the latest Instructables 3D Printing Contest, so if you appreciate this design, be sure to vote for it here.
The first thing on your list to-do is to decide what style of shoe you want to 3D print. After that, you’ll need to produce a shoe of the same configuration (sneaker, sandal, etc.) to make a plaster ‘last’ form, which is basically a form for the shoe, representing the inner volume. To do this, you’ll need:
- An old shoe with similar design
- Plastic bag
- Plaster and all the materials necessary to make it
- Fabric strips
- Smartphone camera
- 3D modeling software (preferably 3DS Max)
- A 3D printer
You’ll want to follow the directions for (fun!) making the cast of the innards of your shoe and then allow it to dry. Be prepared upon attempting to remove the plaster that you might have to wiggle and even work to pry it out. After you have the plaster sample, it’s time to decide on your basic design, drawing some sketches before you get to the final point of going digital.
iwillspy13 used 123D Catch to import his design plan for a sneaker into digital form.
“To use this program, you take a bunch of pictures all around an object from three different heights, and plug them into the program,” said iwillspy13. “Then it will stitch all the pictures together and spit out a 3D model that we will then use to model our sneaker.”
It’s recommended that you use the phone app to take several sets of photos–about 40 shots total–of the shoe from above, below, and at eye level; once finished, you can upload that to 3DS Max and then begin modeling. Here’s where things get a little tricky, and you will probably want to give yourself a lot of extra time for trial and error–not to mention reading iwillspy13’s Instructable thoroughly and learning from his mistakes and challenges. iwillspy13 decided to design the shoe in two pieces, which he reported as being difficult to work with, but ending up being successful in the end after great effort.
He based a lot of the design work in this phase from an Autodesk tutorial which he strongly suggests watching if you are making this design.
You can also import iwillspy13’s file from Thingiverse, inspired by his favorite Adidas shoe.
“Basically you use Refine and Connect to make a web of points and lines that can be the moved to create your desired shape,” said iwillspy13. “Now if you want your sole/treads to be attached to the main sneaker from the beginning it should be pretty simple to do.”
“I added a surface modifier and started moving points around to create the shape of my sneaker. You will need to edit the Bezier curves on some points to smooth out the surface of the shape. After that, it’s just tweaking the shape, adding an edit poly, manipulating polygons as needed (adding, subtracting, extruding, etc), and slapping on a mesh smooth.”
Encouraging every designer to use their own level of creativity for the project, iwillspy13 reiterates that he only gives guidelines, but he does do a clear job of walking you through the basic details in his Instructable, and especially issuing the warning of how very, very important it is to make copies frequently while editing your design.
Once you’ve checked your file to verify that it’s good for 3D printing, you’ve got a major part of the complicated work out of the way. iwillspy13 used his MakerBot software and Replicator 2 to 3D print his pair of shoes, which required a great deal of support during the printing process. Checking your settings is very important here.
“You can check what the support material will look like by looking at the print preview. Also, change the orientation of your model to see what will give you the least amount of support material,” said iwillspy13. “Additionally, I highly endorse adding a raft to your print; it helps a lot with minimizing warping of your object.”
You’ll need to experiment with whether or not your model will fit on the build plate and with what orientation, as well as which material you want to use, with the recommendation to go with PLA while you do lots and lots of test prints.
Once you’ve finished your print, iwillspy13 encourages you to post pictures of your results and comments on the design project as well in his Instructables comments section.
Is this a project you are interested in attempting? Discuss in the 3D Print Your Own Shoe forum thread over at 3DPB.com.
Stay up-to-date on all the latest news from the 3D printing industry and receive information and offers from third party vendors.
Tagged with: 3d print shoes • 3D Printed shoe • 3d printed sneaker • 3DS Max • autodesk • instructable • instructables • instructables 3d printing contest • makerbot
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How 3D printing revolutionizes the footwear industry
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Contents:
- Introduction
- Designers and 3D printing
- 3D printed footwear: try a new manufacturing process and new materials
- Are 3D printed shoes for everybody?
- 3D printed sneakers
- What about the future of 3D printed footwear?
Introduction
Designers and 3D printing
As we saw with the Virus Collection 3D printing allows designers to create clothes.
But its utility in the fashion tech doesn’t end here because it’s also possible to create shoes with astonishing designs.
For example, Zoe Jia-Yu Dai, a designer based in Taiwan and specialised in footwear, created “Breaking the 3D Mould”, a shoes collection with 3D printed parts. This technology allows designers to go further with the design structures. It is a way to change the manufacturing process. It’s easier to create organic structures with additive manufacturing, than with a traditional process.
It is obviously a good way to create prototypes to work on the design of any shoe. Some designers only focus on the design of the shoes. Melissa’s shoes are a great example of the possibilities offered by the 3D printing technology when it comes to design. Check out our blogpost about Melissa’s footwear experiments.
Silvia Fado, a spanish footwear designer, uses 3D printing and laser cutting to do rapid prototyping. Inspired by engineering and architecture, Silvia Fado focusses on style but not only since she’s also interested in the movement of the body, the wearability of the shoes, and the comfort elements that are part of the shoes.
She works on the aesthetic and on the functional value of footwear.
3D printed footwear: a good way to try a new manufacturing process and new materials
Rethink your production
Like in other sectors, 3D printing can be used to develop new manufacturing processes. It can give more possibilities and opportunities to any company. For example: Feetz. It is an American startup run by Lucy Beard. They make custom shoes, easy to wear and with a nice style. On top of that, Feetz is also committed to protect the environment.
They developed their own 3D printer, using a Fused Filament Fabrication technique, and their own 3D printing material: a patented polymer. They wanted to rethink the whole manufacturing process, in order to make it more sustainable. Feetz uses recycled and recyclable materials, no water and reduced by 60% their carbon footprint. Moreover there is no material waste because with 3D printing you only use the quantity that you need.
Their use of 3D printing in their manufacturing process shows that it is possible to change the way the shoes industry affects the environment.
Try out high performance 3D printing materials
New high-performance materials are now available on the market and particularly adapted to the creation of shoe parts, such as midsoles.
The perfect example for that is TPU. Indeed, objects printed with Thermoplastic Polyurethane are offering advanced properties, which is perfect to get durable, strong, and flexible parts. With Sculpteo’s online 3D printing service, you will have the choice between two different TPU options for the creation of shoes or midsoles: Ultrasint® TPU 88A and Ultrasint® TPU01 a perfect 3D printing material choice if you need to produce parts requiring shock absorption, high elasticity, and energy return. For flexible lattices and complex parts, this TPU material is ideal.
Are 3D printed shoes for everybody?
It’s easy to get a pair of 3D printed shoes made with a 3D printing technology. For instance, Feetz collaborated with the designer Seth Aaron to launch a shoe line together, inspired by a Japanese, 1960s mid-century modern look.
You can buy those shoes on their website.
But you can also get custom made shoes, as they are offering different models from slides and sneakers for men and women, to wedges with a lattice design. To get your 3D printed shoes, you have to download their app to 3D scan your feet in order to get a 3D model. Then, you just have to choose the shoes among the different models that Feetz offers. They will make you a ready-to-wear pair of shoes based on the 3D model of your feet.
Continuum Fashion also launched ready-to-wear pairs of shoes, created thanks to 3D printing. With Additive Manufacturing, it is possible to give life to organic forms. The project shows that 3D printing shoes actually make sense to create ready-to-wear. Moreover, you can produce them faster than with traditional manufacturing.
3D printed sneakers
A running shoe can now be partially created with 3D printing technology. Actually, the midsoles of running shoes are particularly suitable for 3D printing.
Big shoe manufacturers are using additive manufacturing. For example, brands like Adidas, Nike, New Balance and Under Armor have already printed sneakers. You can already customize your shoes thanks to Adidas, by choosing the look and the color of it, but you will soon be able to go further. Adidas already made a limited edition of FutureCraft 3D, using 3D printing. The brand now unveiled FutureCraft 4D, a footwear with a midsole created in partnership with Carbon 3D, using a new process called Digital Light Synthesis (formerly known as CLIP). Thanks to digital light projection, oxygen-permeable optics and liquid resin, this process can produce a durable and resistant polymeric goods. These Futurcraft 4D shoes will offer a personalized support for athletes and are allowing mass customization. New Balance Zante Generate is another similar project, these sneakers have a partially 3D printed midsole. It is a pair of running shoes with a flexible midsole that offers a good support. Nike also uses 3D printing a lot for prototyping and they are proud to say that they use Selective Laser Sintering to create their prototypes.
Indeed, you can work and rework on a shoe design very easily thanks to rapid prototyping. They made a partnership with HP, who released the HP Multi Jet Fusion, and will certainly work on new projects soon.
Rethinking the manufacturing process
Nike also uses 3D printing a lot for prototyping and they are proud to say that they use Selective Laser Sintering to create their prototypes. Indeed, you can work and rework on a shoe design very easily thanks to rapid prototyping. They made a partnership with HP, who released the HP Multi Jet Fusion, and will certainly work on new projects soon. Indeed, Nike, is using additive manufacturing to prototype its products, and in 2017, their use of 3D printing was estimated to provide a 10% cost efficiency. With their partnership with HP, mass production could be on its way with the use of these powerful 3D printers. These big leaders of the footwear industry have to start using additive manufacturing in order to keep on being competitive and improve their processes on a different level: it can be for product development, customization, or mass-production.
Fully 3D printed shoes?
There is still a lot of work to get the fully 3D printed shoe. Nevertheless, some product developments are going in this direction: Olivier Van Herpt is using 3D scans and 3D printing to create new shoe structures, making them unique, lightweight and quite resistant. These 3D printed shoes have a unique style but are custom-made, meaning that they guarantee you the perfect fit. But Olivier Van Herpt is not the only person working on fully 3D printed shoes. Some other creators like Nicholas Unis are starting their footwear business with fully 3D printed products.What about the future of 3D printed footwear?
3D printed footwear can easily be integrated to your daily life, for example Phits, with their 3D printed insoles, are a good example. Some projects are really accessible to anybody, and could be developed more widely. Personalized pairs of shoes are now accessible to everybody and mass customisation will gain ground in the upcoming years.
Indeed, 3D printing is a great way to get shoes perfectly adapted to your feet. Big brands are making partnerships with major actors of Additive Manufacturing such as HP, and are including the 3D printing process in the production of some of their models. 3D printed shoes, thanks to brands like Nike or Adidas are now entering the mass production era.
Designers will continue to work with 3D printing as it allows to create incredible designs with a lot of freedom. For example, Zoe Jia-Yu Dai is definitely not going to stop working with 3D printing. As she’s interested in men and children’s footwear, new projects could be launched really soon.
The footwear industry is more linked to 3D printing than you might think. All these examples show that there are different ways to create shoes. It can be to push design boundaries or to change manufacturing methods by finding an ecological way to produce, or even to get shoes or insoles made to measure for more comfort. Reasons to create 3D printed shoes are numerous, and it could be pushed further in the upcoming years!
Do you want to start your 3D printing business in the footwear industry? Well, here is our first advice: Choose the right 3D software.
Getting the perfect shoe design software will help you start your best project.
You have a 3D model and you want to prototype a pair of shoes, or anything else? You can upload a model on our online 3D printing service.
You want more news about the latest innovations in the 3D printing industry? Don’t hesitate to subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
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3D printing in footwear
We recently talked about the use of 3D printing to create orthopedic insoles, which was brought back from Formnext 2017, and there we also saw a prototype Adidas sneaker with a 3D printed sole. This is an interesting topic, let's delve into it a little more.
Major sports shoe manufacturers are investing considerable time and money into developing ways to apply 3D printing to the footwear industry. Companies like Reebok, Under Armor, Adidas, Nike and New Balance are showing that they see 3D printing as the future of the footwear industry. nine0003
What is it, advertising and PR on the hype raised around additive technologies, or a sober calculation and a look into the future?
Let's try to figure it out.
Under Armor
3D printing company EOS North America Inc and Under Armor have joined forces to develop the commercial production of 3D shoes.
EOS North America and Under Armor partner to help Under Armor scale their 3D printed footwear business.
The use of laser sintering technology, as well as the use of EOS's experience in industrial 3D production, will help develop the Under Armor shoe business. Together they intend to work on the composition of new powders and the development of sintering technology.
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Under Armor plans to use EOS technology to 3D print shoe parts from powder.
To highlight their partnership, at Formnext 2017, the companies showcased UA's new ArchiTech Futurist footwear together.
Nike
Nike also designs shoes using 3D printing technology. In 2017, Footwear News wrote:
“Prodways' 3D printed shoe parts, insoles and soles made from thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) are being used to speed up the production of running shoes and improve their performance. nine0003
While Nike has yet to announce mass production of 3D printed shoes, Nike executives appreciate the potential of Prodways' materials and 3D printers to improve shoe quality and increase production speed.”
Nike is using 3D printing in prototyping with French company Prodways.
Nike has already created 3D printed shoes, although they were off-the-shelf products for professional athletes.
For example, in 2013 the company introduced and in 2014 released 3D printed football boots and running shoes. nine0003
New Balance
New Balance launched a running shoe in 2016 with a fully 3D printed Zante Generate sole.
Zante Generate is a New Balance running shoe with a fully 3D printed outsole, created in collaboration with 3D Systems.
Working with 3D Systems, NB used DuraForm TPU powder to 3D print sneaker parts. The soles were printed using SLS technology, a trial batch consisted of 44 pairs.
Reebok
Reebok is no stranger to 3D printing, back in 2016 the company introduced its new Liquid Factory 3D technology.
Reebok's first 3D printed sneaker was called the Liquid Speed.
The Reebok Future team, which is responsible for introducing new technologies at Reebok, has partnered with the chemical giant BASF, which developed the 3D printing resin used by the company.
Head of Reebok Development Bill McInnis says:
With this process, we can create an entire shoe by programming a robot to draw it, layer by layer, from a high-strength liquid material. This results in a sole with completely new properties, much more resilient than traditional sneaker rubber soles, and transmitting momentum more precisely. Liquid Factory creates a shoe that stretches and wraps around the foot for 3D support.>>
The company didn't stop there. Together with the Modla design studio, they developed the Modla X Reebok 3D, a 3D printed training mask for athletes. nine0003
The polymer part of the mask, which was designed using Ultimaker 2 FDM printers for prototyping, is produced using EOS 3D printers using SLS technology.
The inner parts, silicone, and soft part of the mask, made of Flexweave material, were laser cut.
The mask is designed to limit the access of air, which increases the load on the lungs and contributes to the endurance training of the body as a whole. The load is adjusted by turning the front of the mask, which switches the silicone valves inside. nine0003
The following functionality is not announced, but we think that with some minor modifications, the mask will also serve as a respirator from urban dust, which is so much in the air in hot weather.
Adidas
In 2017, Adidas announced a partnership with Silicon Valley-based Carbon.
One of the leading brands in the advancement of 3D printing in footwear, Adidas, has partnered with Carbon to apply a 3D printed outsole made with their Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) technology to a Futurecraft 4D model. nine0003
Together they created the Futurecraft 4D 3D printed insole.
This is not only an interesting technical solution, but also a hot topic - the number of mentions on Instagram is growing.
Marvel comic book hero Black Panther
Canadian model Adrianna Ho
Sneakers on sale from mid-February, cost about $300.
Digital Light Synthesis is a Carbon process that uses breathable optics, digital projection and pre-set photopolymer resins to produce durable polymer products. Futurecraft 4D is Adidas' first application of DLS technology. nine0003
DLS gives products strength and elasticity.
Carbon says their unique technology will provide never-before-seen durability, strength and resilience to 3D printed products. Adidas is aiming to release 100,000 pairs of shoes using this technology by the end of 2018.
This is not Adidas' first experience with additive manufacturing. A few years ago, the company collaborated with Shining 3D to design the Springblade sneaker.
The management of Adidas was quite an experiment and was going to continue cooperation with Shining 3D, but something didn’t work out - we didn’t hear about their joint activities anymore, there was only a mention of Adidas on the Shining 3D website, among partners. nine0003
Do it yourself
Some simple types of shoes can already be printed by any owner of a conventional FDM-3D printer. For these purposes, even the simplest Prusa is suitable, as you can see in this video:
Slippers, shoe soles, uppers for costume shoes (for cosplay or carnival). Thingivers and other 3D sharing resources are full of such projects.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:980191
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:597498
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1178775
https://www.
thingiverse.com/thing:2314052
https:/ /www.thingiverse.com/thing:1587947
There are also real works of art.
Of course, the strength and convenience of such homemade products is a big question, but this is only the beginning.
Conclusions
As you can see, despite the raised advertising hype, quite working models are created, which often surpass shoes made by traditional methods, not only in terms of consumer properties, but also in terms of manufacturability in production. nine0003
3D printing in shoe production gives less weight to shoes, more opportunities to change elasticity and stiffness, due to the complex internal structure of the print, plus the widest field for designing and inventing new forms that would be impossible to create using traditional methods.
Considering that the main players in the sports footwear market have been developing in this direction for several years, we can hope that 3D-printed shoes will become available to the public very soon.
You can order 3D printing at Top 3D Shop — rich experience, a wide choice of materials and a large fleet of equipment allow us to fulfill any order. nine0003
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The most notorious example of 3D printed shoes was by Adidas in 2015. Then they released the first sneakers with a printed sole - Futurecraft 3D. Around the same period or a little earlier, on popular portals with 3D models, you could download and print your own sandals, of course, more for fun. Those. 3D printers have been used in shoe manufacturing for a long time. But few people know how things are in the real Russian shoe production and how long 3D printing technologies have been used. nine0003
RALF RINGER is a Russian company specializing in the production and sale of men's, women's and children's shoes under the brands Ralf Ringer, Piranha and Riveri.
Production facilities are located in Moscow, Zaraysk and Vladimir.
RALF RINGER acquired its first 3D printer back in 2017.
Manufacture of the sole is a complex technological process, which includes the manufacture of expensive aluminum tooling, in other words, molds. The cost of a mistake is about 10,000 euros. Therefore, to reduce risks, it is important to make the most accurate layout possible. Previously, RALF RINGER carried out this process on 6-axis CNC machines, or on powder printers. Both methods did not suit them: in the first case, it was expensive equipment, in the second, expensive materials. nine0003
RALF RINGER bought a HERCULES STRONG 3D printer in 2017 to make sole models.
The cost of making a model immediately decreased by 15-20 times, and the manufacturing time was reduced to a day.
Then heels began to be printed. It is very important for the heel to "stand" correctly on the plane, the comfort when walking depends on it.
All the main elements, such as the heel itself, the main insole / half insole, arch support, hard heel counter, must be perfectly fitted. It is important to note that the feel of the foot - depending on the deflection - changes significantly for every millimeter of values. Therefore, in addition to aesthetics, functional indicators were selected - material, filling density, wall thickness. nine0003
Now, before opening the molds for the RALF RINGER heel, they print a functional model of the heel, attach it to the shoe and carry out all the necessary fitting and technological operations before the mass launch.
Having received a functional heel model, they thought about obtaining a functional flexible sole model. For the production of such a functional model, it was decided to print molds with a short life cycle .
The RALF RINGER team developed special technologies for designing and printing molds, selected materials and technological modes of casting.
