Adidas has presented a sneaker whose sole is made with a 3D printer. The sole is made by an American start-up. This company uses a printing technology that significantly speeds up the production process compared to production via regular 3D printers.
Adidas will release the shoe in the fall and expects to sell 5,000 copies of the ‘Future 4D’ sneaker this year. Next year, that should be increased to 100,000 copies, when the shoe will be mass-produced. This has been announced by the start-up responsible for the 3D printing of the sole, the American company Carbon. Carbon is financed by, among others, General Electric and Alphabet, the parent company of Google.
Carbon would be able to print the sole in twenty minutes, which is more than four times faster than printing a shoe sole using traditional 3D printing technologies. Carbon’s technology, called digital light synthesis, consists of using liquid resin that is irradiated with ultraviolet light and oxygen. This material then undergoes chemical changes; the resin hardens after which a solid shape is formed.
In 2015, Adidas already introduced a conceptual prototype of the Futurecraft shoe. At the end of last year, Adidas made several hundred copies of the 3D Runner, a shoe whose sole was manufactured by regular 3D printers. This shoe cost 333 dollars, but was quite heavy and it took ten hours to print the sole. This process should now be significantly faster with the Future 4D shoe.