3D Shoes 3D Shoes
  • News
    NewsShow More
    Installation view of IRIS VAN HERPEN’s “Sculpting the Senses” at ArtScienceMuseum, Singapore, 2025. Courtesy of Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.
    Iris van Herpen’s “Sculpting the Senses” Exhibition Guide
    July 6, 2025
    HUGO x Zellerfeld 3D‑printed loafer suspended against a dark gradient background
    HUGO x Zellerfeld 3D-Printed Loafers: The Drop That’s Rewriting the Rules of Footwear
    July 3, 2025
    Digital render of Syntilay’s AI-designed space sneaker glowing in holographic display
    Cosmic Kicks: Why Reebok’s Joe Foster Is Betting on the First Shoe Designed in Space
    June 28, 2025
    Panoramic view of Koobz’s Ventura 3D‑printing farm with multiple printers running in parallel.
    Koobz Raises $7.2 Million: How an 800‑Printer “Sneaker Factory” Could Kick‑Start the 3D‑Printed Footwear Revolution
    June 25, 2025
    Array of low-temperature 3D-printed glass test shapes created at MIT Lincoln Laboratory
    Low-Temperature 3D-Printed Glass: MIT’s Inorganic-Composite Ink Revolution
    June 23, 2025
  • Design
    DesignShow More
    adidas Is Dropping A Laced Version Of The Climacool
    Adidas Climacool Laced 2025 Release: What You Need to Know Before Buying
    June 20, 2025
    Side profile of the red 3-D-printed Nike Air Max 1000 prototype
    Nike Air Max 1000 vs Adidas 4DFWD 3: Can Either 3‑D‑Printed Sneaker Survive 500+ Miles?
    June 16, 2025
    A pigmented O° shoe featuring a black 3D-printed structure overlaying a grey textile base layer Image: Courtesy of OXMAN
    OXMAN’s O° Platform: Pioneering 100% Biodegradable 3D-Printed Footwear
    January 29, 2025
    The First AI Shoe
    Stepping into the Future: Reebok’s Co-Founder Teams Up with Young Innovator to Revolutionize Footwear through AI and 3D Printing
    January 23, 2025
    CamperLab’s Tossu Shoe Gets an Update From Mr. Bailey’s Concept (K)
    CamperLab x Mr. Bailey’s Tossu Shoe – A Design Revolution
    December 17, 2024
  • Trends
    TrendsShow More
    Woman holding phone showing herself in a Doppl-style outfit preview
    Google Doppl: Will AI Try-Ons Really Change 3D Fashion—or Just Tease What’s Next?
    June 30, 2025
    High-resolution collage featuring five popular running shoes — Nike Invincible 4, HOKA Bondi 9, ASICS GEL-Nimbus 27, New Balance FuelCell SC Elite v4, and Adidas 4DFWD — recommended for an EPU 45 midsole upgrade.
    5 Running Shoes That Need Carbon’s EPU 45 Foam (But Probably Won’t Get It Yet)
    June 10, 2025
    Sean Wotherspoon's Sean Double U
    One Pair, One Purpose: The Philosophy Behind Sean Wotherspoon’s Dual Silhouettes
    June 9, 2025
    Digital collage of 10 recycled sneakers from top brands in 2025, showcasing eco-friendly materials like ocean plastic, algae foam, and knit uppers
    10 Shoe Brands Turning Trash into Trend: The Rise of Recycled Footwear in 2025
    June 4, 2025
    Close-up of Adidas 4D-printed midsole showing breathable lattice structure
    Are 3D-Printed Shoes Worth It in 2025? What Sneaker Brands Don’t Want You to Know
    June 2, 2025
  • Recommended Picks
    Recommended PicksShow More
    High-resolution collage featuring five popular running shoes — Nike Invincible 4, HOKA Bondi 9, ASICS GEL-Nimbus 27, New Balance FuelCell SC Elite v4, and Adidas 4DFWD — recommended for an EPU 45 midsole upgrade.
    5 Running Shoes That Need Carbon’s EPU 45 Foam (But Probably Won’t Get It Yet)
    June 10, 2025
    Anycubic Wash & Cure 3
    Budget vs. Premium: Which Wash & Cure Station Is Right for You in 2025?
    June 5, 2025
    CAD for kids course review covers a 16-week program taking learners from CAD sketch to 3D-printed model, summarizing projects, skills and required tools.
    CAD for Kids – Build, Create & Learn — Our Full Project-Based Review
    May 8, 2025
    Best Subscription Boxes for Moms This Mother’s Day (2025 Gift Guide)
    🎀 Best Subscription Boxes for Moms This Mother’s Day (2025 Gift Guide)
    April 29, 2025
    3D Printing from Zero to Hero in Blender – FDM & MSLA - Course Review
    3D Printing from Zero to Hero in Blender – FDM & MSLA: Build, Create & Learn — Our Full Project-Based Review
    April 12, 2025
Reading: This Elon Musk-Backed 3D-Printed Sneaker Company Is Seeking Beta Testers
Fuel Our Steps
Font ResizerAa
3DSHOES.COM3DSHOES.COM
  • News
  • Design
  • Recommended Picks
  • STL Files
Search
  • Home
  • News
  • Design
  • Recommended Picks

Stella McCartney Vegan Shoes

R_Shoes R_Shoes June 26, 2024
5.9kLike
4kFollow
3.7kPin
3.7kFollow
  • Home
  • About
  • STL Files
  • Contact
© 2024 3DSHOES.com. All Rights Reserved.
3DSHOES.COM > News > News > This Elon Musk-Backed 3D-Printed Sneaker Company Is Seeking Beta Testers
News

This Elon Musk-Backed 3D-Printed Sneaker Company Is Seeking Beta Testers

R_Shoes
Last updated: June 27, 2024 2:16 am
By R_Shoes 5 Min Read
Share
SHARE
zellerfeld beta

Zellerfeld

Zellerfeld isn’t your usual sneaker company. Sure, Zellerfeld sneakers exist — namely, one with promising designer Heron Preston — but its founders don’t see Nike or Adidas or even Allbirds as real competition. Instead, comparisons to Tesla or SpaceX are more fitting, CEO Cornelius Schmitt admits in interviews. (They even made a pair of shoes for Elon Musk’s son, X Æ A-XII.)

That’s because Zellerfeld isn’t a fashion brand. It’s a software company. Designers submit files and Zellerfeld 3D prints them, creating sneakers out of a soft, spongy recycled TPU material — sort of like Adidas Boost, for example.

zellerfeld
Old sneakers can be broken down to create new ones.

Zellerfeld

Right now, each pair takes 40 hours to make, a timeframe constrained by the company’s current scale. But they’re ramping up production and soliciting beta testers. Testers will wear the latest update of the HERON01, Version 0.81, Preston’s signature shoe, and provide feedback on how it fits, what sorts of terrain it couldn’t tackle — if it rubbed or caused blisters and so on and so forth. Zellerfeld will also analyze your foot’s imprint, where the tread wore down fastest and whether any damage occurred. These data points and open-ended answers will inform the next version, Version 0.82.

“The beta tester community has been incredible,” Preston says. “The demand and feedback for the first version was beyond my expectations, and interacting with beta testers makes me want to continually update the design for them to try.”

zellerfeld
Although comparable in terms of comfortability to Crocs or Merrell Hydro-Mocs, the HERON01 is more stylish because it’s less plastic-looking.

Zellerfeld

In the future, feedback can be returned in real time, and edits can be made at a similar speed. Once an update is made, the sneaker owner can send that pair back for it to be repurposed into the newest model.

These are Zellerfeld’s ambitions, of course, but they’re still a ways away from this sort of circularity. There’s clear interest, though, considering the company’s first few rounds of funding fetched investments from PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX (three companies intimately involved with billionaire futurist Elon Musk), among others — and buyout offers from big footwear brands. They’ve eagerly declined them all, past interviews reveal.

 

zellerfeld
3D-printing is preferable over injection molding (how Crocs are made) because you don’t need to make new molds for each update. The software can relay the changes to the printer.

Zellerfeld
zellerfeld
3D-printed sneakers can still perform, Zellerfeld promises. 

Zellerfeld

 

For Preston, Zellerfeld offers a way to bypass traditional production hurdles, which are too much to surmount for startups and independent designers alike. There are often order minimums in the thousands, and if you’re unsure how your first shoe will sell, this means serious debt straight out of the gate.

In the future, Zellerfeld wants to be more like an app store than an actual brick-and-mortar. There, designers could upload their own ideas, shoppers can pick their preferred one and Zellerfeld will print it, ideally delivering it as soon as the next day.

That’s a pace no other sneaker manufacturer can match, because Zellerfeld uses automated 3D-printing machines instead of human labor — “software instead of assembly lines,” the brand states. This alternative manufacturing method uses no toxic processing chemicals or adhesives and creates very little waste, if any at all, since the shoes are printed on demand. Whatever waste is left can be recycled back into the machine, just like old Zellerfeld shoes, to create more shoes.

There are plenty of kinks left to work out, but this is a promising company worth keeping an eye on, especially as the rubber footwear renaissance continues. You can sign up to be a beta tester through Zellerfeld’s site or on their forthcoming iPhone app. There, you can scan your foot for the perfect fit. Version 0.81 will be $350.

 

SOURCE: https://www.gearpatrol.com/style/shoes-boots/a40511043/zellerfeld-beta-testing/

Share This Article
Facebook Twitter Copy Link

Stay Up To Date!

Sign up for 3DShoes.com's mailing list where you will stay up-to-date with latest trends, drops, and more.

loader

PixelCrafted banner ad bold headline ‘Websites That Sell’, tagline ‘Custom WordPress builds that convert’, button ‘Get a Free Mockup’.

Trending

OESH Townie Flat

The OESH Townie flat is a beautiful, functional flat that is 3D printed to provide…

September 4, 2019

Space Kick Sneakers

Designed by Michal Kukucha, and in collaboration with Rem D Koolhaas, “Space Kick” is the…

August 24, 2020

How 3D Printing May Be Used

There is a lot of hype around having personal 3D printers but consumers have not warmed…

February 17, 2016
5.9kLike
4kFollow
3.7kPin
3.7kFollow
News

Low-Temperature 3D-Printed Glass: MIT’s Inorganic-Composite Ink Revolution

Array of low-temperature 3D-printed glass test shapes created at MIT Lincoln Laboratory

For centuries, shaping real glass has meant working in a furnace hot enough to soften sand—well above 1,000 °C. That energy barrier has fenced additive manufacturing (AM) out of one of…

R_Shoes June 23, 2025

Your may also like!

Installation view of IRIS VAN HERPEN’s “Sculpting the Senses” at ArtScienceMuseum, Singapore, 2025. Courtesy of Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.
News

Iris van Herpen’s “Sculpting the Senses” Exhibition Guide

R_Shoes July 6, 2025
HUGO x Zellerfeld 3D‑printed loafer suspended against a dark gradient background
News

HUGO x Zellerfeld 3D-Printed Loafers: The Drop That’s Rewriting the Rules of Footwear

R_Shoes July 3, 2025
Woman holding phone showing herself in a Doppl-style outfit preview
Innovation & Trends

Google Doppl: Will AI Try-Ons Really Change 3D Fashion—or Just Tease What’s Next?

R_Shoes June 30, 2025
Digital render of Syntilay’s AI-designed space sneaker glowing in holographic display
News

Cosmic Kicks: Why Reebok’s Joe Foster Is Betting on the First Shoe Designed in Space

R_Shoes June 28, 2025
loader

Our website stores cookies on your computer. They allow us to remember you and help personalize your experience with our site.

Read our privacy policy for more information.

Quick Links

  • Home
  • About
  • STL Files
  • Contact

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy (EU)
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions

Socials

Follow US
Crafted with love by PixelCrafted.Dev ❤
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Stay Up To Date!

Sign up for 3DShoes.com's mailing list where you will stay up-to-date with latest trends, drops, and more.

loader

Zero spam, Unsubscribe at any time.
adbanner
AdBlock Detected
Our site is an advertising supported site. Please whitelist to support our site.
Okay, I'll Whitelist
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?