ENDLESS CREATIVITY.....

It can be Fused, Waxed, Sintered, Z-Corped, Polyjeted, Glassed, Cemented or Resined. 3D printing represents for sure the next product frontier. 

Not alone, the principle is now in the hands of Generative designers or inverted engineers whose are blending together the mathematics, the architecture and the engineering processes into one object. 

Softwares are evolving to catch up with the technology. Autodesk and PTC to name a few. Well known traditional printer manufacturers are feeding the market with time challenging machines. 

Countless university programs are also creating their own systems. Not to mention the never ending growth of material variety, chemical formulas and soon Nano elements in duo or trio.....endless projection of endless creativity. Every industry class is concerned, lets have a look at the footwear now.

Lets split the visit in two distinctive chapters, one for Fashion and later below one dedicated to performance. What you see above is almost a literal use of the parametric for a piece of footwear, meshes or crossings are kind of expected in filling the shape of an high heel shoe.

Footwear /3D printed evolved dramatically this year 2015 by the industrialization of this process at UNITED NUDE a UK brand.  Not only Polymers but also metal parts are considered.

The 2015 Design week in Milano featured a joint venture in between United Nude and renown Designers in 3D promoted exhibition. The work done so far is wonderful. Again, creativity is endless as far as the products can be crafted without any dampening management. The challenge in Performance tools is way more demanding....

A bit of History: In Performance products, if I believe the retrieved patents, Nike has been the first to investigate in footwear 3D printing and generative design back somewhere in between 2005 and 2006. 3 top athletes been given a post sport fully 3D printed mule at the 2008 Olympics: Asafa Powell, Kobe Bryant and Liu Xiang. 

A careful look at the shoe show similar structures of the Beijing bird nest stadium. Nike never communicated this chapter and pictures are hard to find on internet as well.

I found another, this time, communicated By nike, development exposé of the air rejuven8 introduced in 2008. I also found the patent description with every detail (thanks to Google Patents). 

The process was so close to 3D printed fabrics (bag and dress) that came the hope to see the introduction in 2008 of a full printed upper or why not a full shoe made out of the principle.  

Sometimes hopes come too early my friend. the shoe turned out to be a regular post gridded Air Kukini TPU material with a removable sock like upper, everything bonded over a regular type of midsole. 

Patience..... nothing until 2012..... No commercialized footwear item with a 3D printed part, no performance product either given to any athlete until....

.....NEWBALANCE. 

In fact, NewBalance is the first manufacturer to endorse an athlete with a performing 3 D printed plate. NewBalance is also the first to showcase a potential midsole/foam fully printed (google source) with Partner EOS.

2013, Nike becomes the second manufacturer to endorse an athlete with a performing 3 D printed plate. and the first to make it available in a limited edition. 2014.....2015......nothing .......I can't believe in a try only. NB and NIKE have in public, recorded several job adds for generative designers. 

3D base material is cost and time expensive. I don't believe in a mass construction of items like the one above for tons of reason I do not have room enough to bore people off.

True story: People know how much I appreciated my managers at Adidas. But I felt a little alone in 2003 when I sketched those, having in mind the set of an unexpected internal footwear show based on technology called at that time Stereolithography. 

I planned to make and Polyjet print those hollowed midsole in order to show a potential future of the footwear industry.  But in 2003, People seemed to be everything but ready to waste their time on it. 

I did this in 2009, when finally the subject became a late company matter....those are just ideas, made in few hours, without any target price or consumer kind in mind no function either, trust me, there is here nothing realistic in this design iteration.

I am so eager to see what the sector will offer us in the future. There is no doubt, we are at the real beginning of an endless creativity.