Hybrid shoes show 3D printing and tradition can co-exist

ShoeMaker design software combines complete shoe CAD model in one system.

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Bold, geometrical, 3D printed shoes are a popular mode of demonstration for 3D technology in the consumer space. Yet even makers of fully 3D printed models will confess these concepts are more about demonstrating what 3D printing can achieve rather than their unrivalled wearability. In contrast, hybrid shoes have come into the picture to fuse together both traditional and modern methods of shoemaking and show how it may be possible for these supposedly conflicting forms of manufacturing to coexist.

Delcam CRISPIN will demonstrate the potential of its ShoeMaker design software in the mass customisation of footwear by displaying hybrid shoes at the SIMAC exhibition in Milan from 25th to 27th February.  

The shoes which feature a leather upper and 3D printed sole and heel were developed in Shoemaker, the only footwear design system that integrates fully 3D designs of lasts, uppers and soles, allowing the complete CAD model of the shoe to be developed and visualised in a single system.  

3D printing offers shoemakers a design freedom otherwise rendered impossible through traditional means of manufacturing.  With new material options and a lack of boundaries set by conventional methods, designers have the opportunity to cater to bespoke requests and mass customisation.

Though Delcam CRISPIN acknowledges that more traditional methods may still provide the more suitable manufacturing results for the majority of footwear projects, it is committed to providing designs with a way of experimenting with extreme shapes and concepts made possible with 3D printing.

Delcam’s Chris Lawrie, commented: “The real position is, as always, between the two extremes, with many projects where 3D printing will be the only possible approach able to meet the complexity of the design and just as many where only traditional methods will produce cost-effective results.  The hybrid shoe project is intended to show that the two approaches can be complementary, rather than having to be competitive, and that Delcam CRISPIN software can provide a full range of product development tools for designers, regardless of the manufacturing route they wish to take.”