With 3D printed shoes there is no such thing as too much innovation. The more original ideas we come up with the more success 3D printing will bring to the shoe industry.
There is one problem faced in the shoe industry, and that’s figuring out how to recycle materials used in sneakers. Ammo Liao has come up with a solution for this problem. He created the bio-knit shoe, which is created from a type of plastic that can be recycled like you would a plastic bottle.
The shoe is woven and heated to help forming the upper part of the shoe. The inner part of the shoe is laser-etched, and it’s sole is 3D printed. The heating is important because it helps change the physical properties of the shoe.
Liao uses a 3D knitting machine that can treat the various parts the way they are needed, stiffening some of the parts and softening the others. Combining 3D printing and 3D knitting to create shoes could bring some great ending results that we could someday see available on 3DShoes.com.
The impressive part about Liao is that he is just one person on his own competing against big companies like Nike and Adidas. His shoes give that nice homemade feeling while at the same time still remaining very high tech.
Another advantage his shoes has over others is that they can easily be repaired. His concept of 3D knitted and printed shoes will be able to be applied to a number of products, while still being able to be easily recycled.
#3DShoes #3DPrintedShoes #3DPrinted
