Adidas Futurecraft 4D

Futurecraft 4D. © Adidas AG.

German shoemaker Adidas will begin mass-producing a shoe with a 3D-printed sole. The process will allow for more personalized shoes, shaped to an individual’s weight and gait. Adidas is partnering with the 3D-printing startup Carbon to make the printed soles. Carbon has been financed by General Electric and Alphabet’s Google division, as well as big venture capital firms like Sequoia Capital. The shoe will be called “Futurecraft 4D.” Adidas hopes to sell 5,000 of them this year and as many as 100,000 next year. Carbon says it currently takes an hour and a half to print one of the soles, but it hopes to get that down to as little as 20 minutes per sole. If Adidas’ dream of selling a run of 100,000 Futurecraft shoes comes to fruition, it will be a major push of 3D-printing technology into the mass consumer market.

⇨ Ars Technica, “Adidas wants to sell 100,000 3-D printed sneakers.”