I think at the moment it makes more sense for 3D printed sole, due to complexity possibility for where to have support and squish, and it being thicker so easier to work around than the thin layers wrapping around top of your foot. It is annoying that it's also just more plastic junk to pollute though
5:32 you’d probably want to get them them sprayed with the Hydrophobic waterproofing( shoe shops do it) so all you’d need to do is run them under water and get all the dirt off easily ( though it only lasts 3 months according to to the shoe shop)
Make sure to separate "production time" with "assembly time" when comparing typical shoe manufacturing with 3D shoe manufacturing. There is a lot of lead time and overhead to produce a normal shoe, even if assembling one can take an hour. Also, light-based 3D printing doesn't really lose time when printing multiple items. Extruder-based 3D printing increases in time for each object added to a job.
Yeah I feel like that comment about the time was not very well thought through. The time it takes for a leather shoe to go from a dead cow to a shoe is probably weeks, tanning leather takes a long time. The production volume of these 3d printable shoes can easily be increased by just buying more printers. The only issue I think that the print time causes is the time it takes if you want a fully custom shoe since theres at least 40 hours from measuring to when you can pick it up. However people who order custom shoes are probably used to picking them up a day or two after they're measured anyways just because its more convenient.
I agree with this as well. The printer needs only the spool and they are producing. There's also a conversation to be had about space, up time, and changes when it comes to A 3d printer is smaller than a human. No mold for plastic of the shoe, or machines for cutting patterns, or conveyor belts. You can pack a factory with this. Next is up time. Each point of production is contained down to a printer. If a mold for making insoles breaks, that creates issues, but if a single printer breaks, they rest can keep going. And on the other side, no humans, no sleep, no rest, no breaks. Finally, you want different shoes? Just put a different file in the 3d printer. No changes in molds, no changes to the cut pattern, no relearning what needs to be done for this shoe. IMO There will be a break point where these factors, and probably more beyond what I understand about this production process will be overcome by the 3d printing process
Shouldn't you then also factor in the time it takes for the filament to be made? And actual spool? And the print head? And the printer assembly? You could go down to infinite details.
The filament needs to be harvested as oil from the bottom of the ocean, or deserts, then be chemically altered into plastic, then be colored and extruded onto a spool, before being shipped off to the shoe factory. You have the leather, rubber, etc available in your warehouse, just as you do filament spools. When you start to run low, you order more.
@@Magarthryxno, 3d printing can be superior for very small production runs and prototypes, as well as excessively complex and intricate parts. However for basically everything else, the current manufacturing methods are far superior. Both in cost, efficiency, reliability, strength, and speed. 3d printing is slow, expensive in larger volumes, and the materials are very limited, not to mention the surface quality is ugly, and the strength is often inferior to other manufacturing processes. CNC machining is pretty neat, it didn’t replace all other manufacturing methods, nor did it become the most used one. 3D printing will be used just like CNC is, small production runs, complex parts, and prototypes.
3d printing was a significant industry long before consumer gr ade explosion in the las 10 to 15 years. What chaged is that the patents expired, so now the tech is available to the masses.
a lot of the value in 3D printing is in design and prototyping. it can be very helpful to have something in your hands you can test, and then you can worry about better materials or tooling up for large-scale manufacturing after the design has been refined. but it also provides a way for people to get something when it just isn't worth it to tool up a whole factory to produce something.
As someone who knows next to nothing about leather or shoe construction, I always find your videos fascinating, but this was an especially cool video. Would definitely love to see more about this stuff
They used a thick, angled infill for the outsole. Something similar to Cubic. It's a sturdy infill that creates air pockets. This is compared to something like Gyroid in which the entire infill is "breathable" and can be fully filled when pouring a liquid or sand into it.
The challenge for companies is going to be sales. Why am I paying $250 for $20 worth of material when I use my own 3D printer at my house. 3D printers are quickly approaching the same ease of use as a regular computer printer. They will continue to become more and more mainstream. 3D printers are also getting faster as well so the lag time to manufacture a pair of shoes will be cut down to a few hours.
3D printed shoes will break through if they can make shoes customized to the foot I thought that’s what adidas was going towards but their plans seem to have changed
There is nuance in just setting up a printer to work right with a particular filament let alone a complex print. It's no-where near being practical to most people who don't already own a 3d printer and that number is still V low. Will it become practical? Possibly, sometime, not for at least a decade or two to become popular though. (unless there is some break-through in making extremely easy to use devices v cheaply and for the end products to be better than off the shelf options.
@@JJ-zr6fu I'd be suprised if they would have the bandwidth to make that possible on a mass scale yet. 3d scans aren't rocket science these days but average users are 100% going to mess them up and need someone to guide them through / alter and clean up the scan not to mention that 3d printed shoes are going to take a while to really make the market big enough to support on a mass scale Though I can see lower volume, custom makers to start accepting 3d scans of peoples feet, that they could then 3d-print into custom lasts for each person and each foot. (everyone having slightly different size and shape to each of their feet)
@@MumrikDK Not all too generous. TPU pellets for injection moulding cost about $10/kg, they're sort of on the expensive side to begin with, several times more expensive than common plastics; and to get them extruded into filament for 3D printing, well that filament comes out to $15-25 for a half-kilo spool, it's actually a lot more tedious and difficult to run than rigid materials because it just does not behave, so that price is well justified.
I feel like it needs a plastidip to seal the pores, and a thin layer of more durable rubber on the outsole, but this does seem like a real contender for the future of shoe manufacturing
3D printing is just machining for plastics, it's gonna be huge. It's starting to break into more domestic and consumer markets because the tech has advanced enough to use better and more specific printing materials while cutting down costs on the software side with more efficient programs.
@@misteral9045it needs to become much faster, and less finicky to be viable for too much, other than hobbies imo. It would take millions of printers or years to do a normal Nike Shoe run for as many as they selll.
This is a shoe and not a waterproof work boot. You want it to be able to breathe. It could be solid like that if they wanted but it would suck to wear. Too sweaty and the shoe would also be too stiff.
If you want it better sealed you can simply print it that way. No need for extra steps. These pores were a design choice, probably to hilivht the process since they are marketing the shoes based on the manufacturing.
they have to charge a lot. Like he said in the video 3d printing is time consuming and can take up to a few days and it's super hard to mass produce these since you'd need like 5000 3D printers. To balance the supply and demand they basically have to charge that much which makes sense imo
I wonder if 3D printing could improve mass making outsoles for local cobblers to decrease the costs of resoles without losing profit margin. If people can resole or repair quality foot ware quicker and more affordably, then it’ll make more sense for tradesmen and military personnel to use resoleable boots. I know that the Marines and army both had some resoleable regularion compliant boot options available for awhile in the 2010’s, but it seems like those were all replaced by cup soles again. Just an outsider (not a tradesman, veteran, or active duty military) looking in, this could potentially be a game changer if it works well and reliably.
Please please please cut into an 8000 meter boot like the La sportiva Olympus mons or Scarpa 8000m boot. Would be cool to see all the tech in there. Or just any mountaineering boot really.
I can't wait to start experimenting with printing my shoes later this month when I get some new print heads in. I've been going through the planning for about 7 months now.
There’s a Russian saying that no one goes to see a dancing bear because it dances well, and that’s what this seems like the whole thing being 3d printed seems more like a marketing gimmick then using materials and methods that would combine to make a good shoe.
It is pretty wild that even with this tech, the lattice design still resembles what we see in nature, linear fibers all running in one direction, just like the clogs as you mentioned. So crazy.
If these were 20 bucks I'd be interested but 250 bucks for something that will wear out fast, be impossible to keep clean, can easily tear, and can fail on hot pavement... Yeah idk. Look comfy tho
S. Scott Crump (creator of Stratasys) patented the modern FDM printer around 1989 and they’ve been successful in industry ever since. People rarely mentioned Crump in FDM history. His origin story was that he was using some blend of polyethylene and wax in a modified hot glue gun to make a toy for his daughter. He coined the term Fused Deposition Modeling.
I'd really like to see some Rick Owens shoes cut apart. I think the Kiss Boots would be the most interesting but I could also see there being some demand for seeing what's inside some Geobaskets or Ramones given their popularity among fashion fans.
I'd love to see a printed shoe series. Durability, time and complexity is totally dependent on the printing process and design choices - could be all or nothing, it's just like any other manufacturing process
Own multiple pairs of zellerfelds and they are 100% worth it. Been slowly removing traditional sneakers out of the rotation except the ones I really love. The price just means you're not the target audience, they are selling well and the artists get a good cut for their designs too.
One of the coolest things about 3d printing is the ability to make things with variable density. Thus allowing you to finely tune breathability, center of gravity, support, hardness, and stretch in various sections of a print
This looks like can be printed under 40 dollars if the model file is free. But no, shoe companies gonna rake in that cash so one of the big advantages of 3d printed shoes is gone.
I'd be interested to see if the shoes can be sprayed, painted, with a latex or RTV silicon to help with the surface layer adhesion -- most soft 3d printed materials fuse at the interlayer junction at a slightly lower melt temperature, leading to weak "tearable" texture. Maybe something like designing a channel or layer (like an inner insole) through the subsurface regions, where you can inject RTV silicone to fill the voids. Like an insole, or maybe a stiffiner -- choose the durometer for different springback and durabillity. I think multi materials here make a big difference, and using the FDM platform there can be some tricks yet to be had. If I was a youtuber, I'd do stuff like this idea anyways. Good luck, nice vid.
Very cool! Could this be adapted to other uses, like say cosplay armor? I've been thinking about 3d printing an iron man suit, but the stiff PLA material would have some mobility issues. If I make it out of flexible TPU ($$$) it would probably make it more flexible and mobile, but would probably be prone to cracking and ripping, and not sure if you can paint flexible TPU? What do you think?
I would be incredibly interested in you looking more into the 3D-printing of footwear. I personally am super into 3D-printing and own multiple printers. Would be super cool to see you thoughts on more 3D-printed shoes that combine different materials and 3D-printing techniques!!
I could see a market for digital patterns, maybe from name brands and designers, that you could buy and print at home. Open source community designed stuff could be really cool too.
Long time to print is not really an issue. 3d printing farm is pretty easy to build. So, yeah, it takes 2 days to print one shoe, but if you have like 100 printers - you can print 25 pairs a day. Almost fully automated, and it scales really really well - you only need few workers to maintain a farm of THOUSANDS printers. There are actually a lot of benefits to that. You only need ONE type of manufacturing machine that is easy to fix or replace if it's broken, and you only need one to few kinds of materials :)
you can get a printer and filament for less than the retail price of the shoes, so it could be cool to just pay for them to custom fit the shoe model to your foot, send you the file, and then you could just print it at home. then the 48 hr print time wouldnt matter as much and you could get a fresh pair in new colors whenever you wanted
You need to buy a Bambu Labs X1C with the AMS and try to print your own shoe. I got into 3D printing few years ago and it’s fun. You can change the infill type to various kinds.
3D-printing shoes or clothes seems like a great idea. You can still mass produce everything, but also have the possibility to produce custom fits at virtually no extra cost, there are technically no seams that can rip and depending on what materials you use the longevity could be pretty good compared to the cheaply produced junk that is currently flooding the market. Though repairability would be terrible. As soon as something breaks it goes into the trash, because it's all one piece that can't be repaired for a reasonable price. You'd just end up with loads of trash and with how greedy big companies are, the materials would probably barely last a year of wear at most.
Emergent tech is always such a trip, I’m waiting for the day we start using DNA as programming for self building structures. That’ll be wild. Cool video!
If you have a whole bunch of (not too expensive) 3d printers running, even if each one takes 40 hours, that's not 40 hours paying a craftsperson to work, it's 40 hours of electricity to keep the printers running. You could have loads of machines running at once, the operating cost isn't that high compared to a lot of other types of manufacturing.
That time constraint isn't really a problem. If you factor in labor cost and delivery, it's obvious best contender. FDM Printing is getting very fast lately, so it might get even faster. I want to see you ordering a 100% custom-made shoe in under 40h.
WIth 3d printing, you can stop the print hallway through and lay something down for an insole to be printed over or you could use a pressure chamber to infuse the matrix between the square honeycomb of layer lines with another material that cures
Just to add sth: 3d printed houses are pretty much a scam. Or at least massively oversold. No doubts you can 3d print the shell of a house, but it’s costly, complicated and the end result always looks weird. However, you still need to dig and pour the foundation, build a roof, install doors and windows, do the wiring, plumbing, flooring, etc.. The time it takes to build a regular brick shell of the same size of a 3d printed house is not that much longer. Plus, 3d printing has many points of failures, you’re very size restricted due to the technological constraints of the printer and printing material and you need lots of extra manual labour to get a half pleasant end result. The quickest and most cost-efficient way to get a house is and always will be the fabricated construction method: You have a factory that produces a large quantity of wall and roof assemblies which come with all the plumbing and wiring channels preinstalled and only need final assembly at the construction site without needing to transport a massive, expensive 3d printing unit from one site to another. 3d printed houses are fake-futuristic, needlessly expensive novelties that fall in the same category as container homes for example.
The speed of printing is increasing drastically. There's a reason the print farm at 14:15 isn't using bed-slinging Ender 3 printers; Core X/Y can be driven as much as 10x faster, and new ideas like the "unrolled motor" design where the X (and maybe Y) axis motors are actually a rack of magnets embedded in the rails themselves could speed that process up even further. We're already at a point where the main limiting factor for print speed is how fast you can melt material through nozzles. Exotic new nozzles have come out in the last couple of years, because that's the current bottleneck. 20 minutes per shoe is probably not realistic today, but an hour very well could be, and 20 minutes might just be a few years away.
3D printing technology is there. But to get the shoes right you need accurate 3D scanning and exceptional parametric CAD shoe designs. I also think I’d prefer a 3D printed shell glued or stitched onto an outer sole that has the correct properties for an outer sole, like being more waterproof and more puncture resistant, for instance.
I’m not sure that 3D printing is far enough advanced for printed shoes to be available en masse in the near future. One thing that does surprise me though, is why bespoke shoemakers haven’t yet adopted 3D scanning of their client’s feet. It seems odd they still have craftsmen making lasts from foot measurements rather than scanning and then moulding (or 3D printing) a last.
Doing 3D scanning reliably and then being able to whip something custom up in CAD from that scan just really isn't possible without a lot of man hours yet. Also you are going to spend anywhere from 25-100K for each scanner. Unless someone is spending like Ferrari money on bespoke shoes, it's just not going to be worth it.
@@yayinternets I certainly wasn’t thinking it was going to be a technology for masses. Bespoke shoes are incredibly expensive because of how labour-intensive it is to make them. Currently they take foot measurements then carve a pair of lasts out of wood blanks by hand. Lasts are then adjusted after an initial fittings before the final shoes are made. I just thought it might be more productive and, possibly more accurate, to introduce scanning and 3D printing.
I'd consider a mixed approach at first.. like print most of the shoe, but maybe allow for vibram soles to be attached which would create long lasting soles, and add a sheepskin insole. so.. you get a long lasting, faster to print shoe, with the comfort of a very good shoe, modability which might be nice for some people and custom use cases. etc
@RoseAnvil Oh, 3D printers can do so much more! Just look at why it's worth having such printers - they can perform FDM printing with fibers. For shoes, this is a big advantage! With this technology, shoes can be produced that are significantly more stable and durable than conventionally manufactured ones. The incorporated fibers give the material enormous tear resistance and shape stability.
IMO 3D printing is not going away. Even if it can't full replace the production process, like you've mentioned, the prototyping is something that can be done on the individual or small team level, and I assume that low production amounts are also possible. Furthermore if major show makers don't completely transition over, they will mostly likely find components that they can let a printer produce.
In all honesty, the 3d printing industry was chomping at the bit waiting for that and a couple of other patents to expire. Feel lucky that Boeing or Lockheed didn't buy out the patents and get them extended.
Compare it to an SLS printed shoe like from SCRY or Aliveform! Edit: also thanks, I've been looking at getting Zellerfelds for quite a while now, so your vid came in clutch!
I don't really expect any everyday shoe to withstand puncturing, open flame and straight up just trying to rip it apart. I wonder what is the durability in terms of everyday wear and tear over a long time.
I think there's a really compelling opportunity to use 3d printing for certain design elements like the combined insole/outsole while using more traditional materials for other elements. as well, while TPU is notoriously difficult to using in multi-material prints, if advances are made in that area we could see hybrid shoes with a harder, more supportive midsole material
i think it could be done if they make each part at the same time and put them together it will require multiple 3d printers but will reduce the time to print them
You gotta think though… although it takes a while to print it basically like a 10 dollar shoe. If you have your own printer you have infinite shoes and you can sell them.
Man that's really interesting to see, I've heard a lot of talk of variable density 3d printing, and the principal's pretty simple once you actually get your hands on 3D software and 3D printers and all that sort of jazz. But I'm surprised that it's just as simple grid pattern as you say. Judging by the 24 hour print time , and from the close-ups, they must be using a very ordinary type of FDM printer, TPU filament and it looks like the real trick is there getting under extrusion. The under extrusion is what's causing the translucency. I wonder how they've done that? Could it be as simple as just under extruding? If so that's a crazy simple and clever solution. But the real value of this is if you can print it at home for pennies? if the only way to get this thing is a $200.00 print from somebody else then well yeah that's not really good value. I could probably print this on my crappy $300.00 3d printer here at home for maybe $50.
I’ve seen multiple of fully 3D printed shoes, this is not at all the only one. There’s a brand called Scry which made this their thing I believe, and I’ve also seen 3D printed shoes from a brand called Fused
I've thought about 3d printing some shoes for myself as a fun project, however I would need to buy a larger printer to fit my shoe size so that's out the window
is it possible to soak the shoe and then freeze it or stuff the shoe with something so you can use the bandsaw for the entire shoe? Also that print orientation is so weird, i wonder how they printed it! Very interesting video!
I think the biggest shortcoming of these 3d printing companies is trying to make every component 3d printed. 3d printing is best used in conjuction with traditional parts and materials.
For that price you can get a 3d printer and make as many as you want. Ofc you've gotta consider the time it takes to design them and all that but that's still a lotta money for a shoe made from off the shelf materials with off the shelf tools.
The inside material/pattern is called infill and it looks like a rectilinear pattern, and the inside is always gonna look worse that's just a 3D printed world they don't spend that much time on the inside and stuff that people can't see or people don't focus on
I had a printer filament made from recycled car tires that would be perfect to print these with. It was amazingly tough. Its called Pneumatique from Treed.
If I could print this for a replacement skateboard shoe, I totally would. This would save me sooooo many sneakers. Unfortunately, I just don’t know of a process yet to make it viable and/ or cost efficient.
A budget printer of appropriate size, with an upgraded direct drive extruder and a $30 ish dollar spool of TPU filament and a viable file will have you in perpetual shoes relatively easily. Though unless you have dainty feet the size of machine required will be a significant part of the cost. An Ender 3 can be had for $100 but has about an 8.5" x 8.5" printing surface which mak3s the diagonal just a hair over 12 inches. Meaning that a modestly dimensioned shoe could probably be printed in sizes up to size 11, maybe 11.5 If you have Shaq feet you'll be investing in a larger and significantly more expensive printer. I'd say each shoe would take the better part of a day to print, possibly more depending on the design but basic skater shoes should be pretty simple and on the lighter side. With a bit of forethought that time shouldn't be an issue. The file itself is another thing, I dont know that there's many quality designs available right now, free or paid, but I could absolutely see a number of both appearing soon enough and they could easily be designed with alterations in mind, the ability to adjust a template to suit your feet by entering some measurements. If you wanted to get fancy there's multi color and material printing, you can print in nylon, PET (polyester), various elastic materials, rigid materials for toe caps etc.
If they could print shoes out of a 100% biodegradable, 100% non-toxic material, Id be completely on board with it. Additive manufacturing is intrinsically more resource efficient and creates less waste. One would be able to decentralise production and its possible to adjust the design for the individual customers needs without much effort. At some point you might even be able to print your own shoes or others clothing. As it is, I simply see it as more plastic landfill release into the environment. And we already have enough of that. No one is going to recycle this.
If you factor inn the time it takes to make the machines used for normal shoe making, as well as preparing all the materials, that standard shoe takes a lot longer. If I can scan my foot and then come back to the store 3 days later to pick up the shoe, that is on par with delivery times when ordering things on-line from companies in my country. I think we will get to a point where a lot of things will be made this way. Like cutlery. No need to produce knifes in a lo cost country, transport them around the world, and fill store houses with them. By a pattern you on-line, send it to the lokal steel printing company (or silver, gold, or titanium, if you're feeling fancy), and pick them up when they are done. Faster printing speeds will help, but how often do people by new cutlery, and how much in a hurry are you when you do?
I have one of the first pair of high-tops, and for me, the big cons are: -grippiness of the material in the 'embedded insole'; when I travelled with them I was destroying to pieces a pair of socks a day. -squicky sound while walking (on certain materials). Impressive piece of technology, but still a beta product IMHO.
@@grantc61 You need socks to wear them for more than 10 minutes if you don't want blisters or cuts; at the point that Zellerfeld provides a pair of socks in the box.
It'll NEVER get down to 1 hour. the process is inherently time consuming. If you go faster the print quality suffers plus the added risk of a failed print (not to mention wear and tear on the printer). The only other option is significantly increasing the layer thickness, but there goes the amazing lattice structures you were admiring. 3D printing is just not going to scale much farther than it already has. The future is already here.
I don’t want to ever u “probably should’ve have don’t this..” 7:00 ever again because every idea u have is great keep spamming content and creative videos, these are memories that’ll last forever
