3D printing is everywhere. It’s a craze. A mania. 3D Printing mania may not roll off the tongue well, but it’s led to the most creative fun scientists and engineers have probably had in a long time, with printers designed to make everything from pizzas and cookies to cars and houses. Just a step further and we’ll have replicators serving us tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
And speaking of steps: MIT’s Self Assembly Lab has succeeded in creating futuristic “active shoes” under the Minimal Shoe project, shoes that you can view below in the video.
Thanks to the efforts of the cross-disciplinary team, director Skylar Tibbets and industrial designers Christophe Guberan and Carlo Clopath have created a self-assembling shoe, one that doesn’t require robots to put together once removed from its package. While these shoes are still a work in progress, the team have made great strides in exploring what 3D printing technology can do for wearables.
3D printing a whole shoe is not cost effective for manufacturers. But the team believes they can possibly 3D print the top portions of the shoe, and then attach those to the more traditional materials in the bottom portions to make an active shoe that is much less expensive than usual.
With Nike, Adidas and other shoemakers patenting their own 3D printing designs, it’s not unusual to see a project dedicated solely to improving footwear and footwear manufacturing with the tech of the future. But it’s interesting to think about the possibility that your shoe could one day come in a flat box, be removed, and upon stepping into it, build itself up and around your foot like some kind of creature.
In the future, the shoe wears you!
ACTIVE SHOES Upper from Christophe Guberan on Vimeo.
Christophe Guberan and Carlo Clopath + Self-Assembly Lab, MIT
This project explores the possibility of producing the upper part of a shoe by printing a specific pattern on stretched fabric. The 2D pattern evolves after cutting into a 3D form. By printing material of varied layer thicknesses onto stretched textiles we are able to create self-transforming structures that reconfigure into pre-programmed shapes. The combination of stretchable fabric and plastic offers both flexibility and stability.
Credits Film
Film by: Emile Barret
Music: "Resound" by Lullatone
Source: 3Ders.org via Sole Collector