The catwalks of the world of high fashion are steadily beginning to light up with an increasing breadth of examples of 3D printed fashion. Additive manufacturing is gradually being embraced by a wider range of designers and producers of garmentsand accessories. 3D Shoes has a goal to ‘build a large community and marketplace for the exciting 3D shoe industry.’ Using 3D scanning methods such as the Footin3D universal orthopedic 3D foot scanner from Elinvision; Delcam Crispin Shoemaker CAD and visualisation software; and Right Shoes smart-device 3D scanner app the company provides a service to allow customers to select from a portfolio of extant and original designs by leading 3D printed footwear fashioners.
3D printed shoes? There’s an app for that…
3Dshoes is a company that brings together the latest in 3D scanning and printing techniques with an already-impressive selection of fashion professionals, computer aided design experts and fashion graduates to offer their expertise in creating 3D printed shoes within a service provision that is technologically cutting edge.
The company has already linked in with fashion professional Esther Louise Dormont Mees of the label Dormout Mees, Bryan Oknyansky an award winning architecture and women’s shoe designer, experienced 3D designer Earl Stewart, Katrien Herdewyn who has deep educational advanced technology experience, Pavla Podsednikova who connects futuristic technologies with traditional craftmanship of shoemakers and saddlers, and Chaemin Hong a designer of shoes who has used 3D printing to create exploratory fashion work.
The range of shoe designs available is very broad, if not quite yet truly numerous. The designs vary considerably. The ultra modern structures of Bryan Oknyansky, whose architectural experience shows through in a selection of sophisticated footwear that balances very strong lattices of metal with carefully considered contrasting materials.
The open-to-the-air designs of Earl Stewart use a range of meshes that utilise abstract key-lines: some with bio-mimicry as epidermal-like organic integuments, some reflecting man-made motifs, all taking advantage of the finery of line that additive manufacturing allows. Broad is the collection at 3D Shoes by Pavla Podsednikova ― as promised by her synopsis, some of her footwear displays ultra-modern statements of pure abstraction and hard geometry that minimise form and maximize impact; others keenly reflect a traditional design approach that is clean, crisp and clear yet augmented with a subtle play with line and form.
The website is clean, crisp and clear, with simple instructions for the scanning technologies used. The implication of a smart-device app puts the personalisation aspect in the customers own home, allowing an approach to purchasing footwear products that is a real contrast to the retail experience that the majority of consumers are currently accustomed to.
Some of the more radical designs may not be to everyone’s taste, but those who are seeking to make a fashion statement that is thought-provoking, high quality and far from the whiles of the madding crowd will find much to please and peruse here. The range of designs are broad and are more probably than not going to keep on growing. The customer interface could be said to require a little more clarity, as the ‘Order Shoes’ page is quite sparse in detail regarding the ordering process.
3D Shoes offer a number of ways to get your precise foot measurements to them so that they can offer the advantages of professional additive manufacturing: personalisation, customisation, innovative design, advanced manufacturing techniques, quality materials, alternative supply chain logistics and design forms that simply cannot be made any other way. All in all this looks to be a premier platform in the making.
