You may not have your own 3D printer but I guarantee that you know someone who does. With an estimated industry worth of $100 billion by 2030, 3D printing is a growing trend that can only become more mainstream over time.
Helping with that trend is the emergence of 3D printed apparel that people actually want to use, including 3D printed shoes that even the best 3D printers you have at home can’t reproduce.
In collaboration with Zellerfeld, a leading shoe manufacturer, the team behind the 3D Printing Nerd YouTube Channel — the most popular 3D printing channel around — has announced a fully 3D-printed shoe and it’s available to preorder today.
David Tobin, the producer from 3D Printing Nerd, is the brains behind the design. “These shoes are not just for fun and fashion, but function,” Tobin said. “I wanted to use additive [manufacturing] to do things regular shoes cannot.”
At 3D Printopia, the East Coast’s largest 3D printing show, Tobin and Joel Telling, the 3D printing Nerd himself, announced the D7 shoes in two styles, the standard D7 for $189 and the special edition Joelbot D7 with a custom image of the 3D Printing Nerd mascot — a robot face — on the base for $209.
These shoes use a specially formulated TPU material that can be used to custom-design just about any shape or size of shoe. David’s design has shades of a skater shoe, which is entirely intentional. “I love to to skate still and am on a board when I can. These have a built up interior element to prevent ollie holes from forming right away.”
The TPU material is fully waterproof, although this design has vent holes to keep your feet cool and dry as you wear them. They can be washed, though, and David told me he has thrown them in the wash with his skate clothes with no ill effects.
For 3D-printed apparel to hit the mainstream, it will need the backing of the community that supports it. These shoes from the 3D Printing Nerd team look and feel like a shoe you would normally wear, with the added wow factor of being a futuristic, recyclable material. Plus who doesn’t want to have a cool robot face appear when you tread in the sand?
