![]() Every footwear company was using this process to print midsoles, outsoles, to put them on an upper, to see how they look, to see if we needed to redo it. There was a process called Rapid Prototyping that allowed you to print parts of shoes. When we talk about the beginnings of 3D printing, we need to go back to the early 2000s. For the past eight years I have been basically one of the 'founding fathers' of 3D printing activity here at adidas – the results of which you're now seeing with 4D.ĤD and the tech behind it are obviously very much future-facing, but can you take it back for a moment to explain how and why the brand first got interested in the idea of using 3D printing for footwear, and how this has evolved over time? So we have the luxury of looking into elements we think might become relevant from a technology perspective for our products – such as 3D printing. Our R&D team is where we are able to look into concepts that are five to seven years out before they might go into a commercial space. I originally trained as a mechanical engineer, and have been with the company for 12 years now – the last eight in Germany as part of the Research and Development team. I'm Director of Future Technology Innovation here at adidas. First dropping a shoe with a 3D printed midsole as a concept release from Futurecraft – their incubator for showcasing experimental and conceptual innovation – back in 2017, they have since been gradually ramping up their offering under the banner of adidas 4D.ĬOMPLEX: Can you begin by introducing yourself and your role at adidas? This is a shift that is likely to continue, and one that opens up enormous possibilities from a design perspective – not least the potential for totally personalised footwear at some point in the very near future.Īdidas are a brand at the very forefront of 3D printing innovation. While many brands have used 3D printing as a part of their manufacturing process for a while – mainly in the development of prototypes – we're now starting to see 3D printed elements increasingly appearing in the final products themselves. One current technological trend that is almost certain to still be around, however, and all set to have a massive impact on the footwear game as a whole in the coming decade, is 3D printing. Not all technological innovations are born equal, of course, and when those 'Best Sneakers of the 2020s' lists finally come around, it's highly likely only a handful of today's hottest tech developments will have stood the test of time. So much so that these days, barely a week seems to pass before we're hearing about the latest – biggest! lightest! shiniest! – iteration to drop. So a pair will cost a lot more than general sneakers.As the global sneaker game has exploded over the past few years, so too has the rate of technological innovation within it. Also, the shoes will be sold as premium products. Adidas plans to mass produce 5,000 pairs as an initial run and then push that number to 100,000 pairs by the end of 2018. The Futurecraft 4D is more ambitious in its scope. It was a limited release intended to explore the possibilities of the technology. So there seems to be genuine excitement surrounding the product.Īdidas has produced 3D printed shoes before. Adidas’s Futurecraft 4D is a shoe that is trying to use 3D printing technology to achieve a balance between design, quality and production cost. While individual 3D printing enthusiasts are interested in creative designs, manufacturers are more interested in bringing down the cost of production. The manufacturing industry has been playing around with 3D printing for a long time. ![]() South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands (GBP £)
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