Meet the Cryptide, the brainchild of German designer Stephan Henrich, who set out to design a shoe inspired by cryptids that could be entirely 3D printed. Interesting design perimeters. The shoe is 3D printed via selective laser sintering (SLS, in which a high-power laser forms tiny particles of polymer powder into a solid) using a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) material, so they aren’t rigid and painful like the entirely-too-small wooden clogs my dad brought me back from a business trip to Holland.
The idea behind the Cryptide is a shoe that can be 3D printed on-demand to fit an individual’s unique feet after taking 3D scans of them. And, I think I speak for everyone here who has two different-sized feet when I say that’s terrific news because I’m tired of having to buy one pair of 12’s and another of 7’s just to make a pair that fits.
Stephan says the unique patterns left by the shoe’s soles were inspired by cryptids like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. The patterns left by my soles? They were inspired by the cheapest pair of shoes I could find on Amazon. I’m just saying; there’s no way they wouldn’t leave marks all over the gymnasium floor and get me kicked out of PE, that’s for sure.
SOURCE: https://technabob.com/blog/2022/02/25/cryptide_3d_printed_shoe/
