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How the Futurecraft 4D shoe by Adidas will impact our future

Todays blog post is inspired by one of my favourite classes this semester, Ethics and Sustainability. One of our projects included writing a detailed report on an assigned company, regarding their approach to ethical and sustainable practices. Another part of the assignment was to do a presentation on a specific product/product line that is ethical or sustainable. My group got to analyze Adidas, and for our presentation we took a closer look at their new Futurecraft 4D shoe, which leads us to the topic of today’s post.



Intro Futurecraft 4D:

The Futurecraft 4D may not be accessible to everyone yet (they have only released small quantities to test sales with early adopters) but it is something you want to keep your eye out for. This new shoe will change the game I’m sure of it, sure it is just a regular shoe but the midsole is anything but normal. Adidas has paired up with 3D printing company Carbon to integrate their new Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) 3D printing technology into fashion. The midsole of the Futurecraft 4D is fully 3D printed and resembles a lattice structure. This allows Adidas to make a multi-functional midsole in a single piece which saves labour and material costs, and eliminates waste. The idea behind the shoe was to be able to make it fully customized to the consumer by scanning their feet and printing the sole in house. Traditionally 3D printing has only been used for prototyping due to its lengthy print time, but with Carbon’s new DLS technology (video link on how it works here) it makes printing 25-100 x faster. This offers the industry a whole new viable option for the manufacturing/production of goods. DLS is faster (printing a sole in 20 minutes), produces less waste, less labour intensive, eliminates the need for offshore sourcing, and can bring consumers a personalized and effective product.

Changing the Game:

As you have read, this shoe is innovative and could change our industry through the integration of 3D printed products. This is currently the largest volume of manufactured 3D material in history with Adidas reaching their 2018 goal of 100 000 units produced, and the shoe is already a raging success. This January Adidas released a limited number of pairs at 3 of their New York City locations retailing at $300.00, they sold out and are now reselling for over $1000.00. There is no question that this shoe will be a success for Adidas, but more than that it will push other companies to follow in their footsteps and switch to domestic machine produced products. With that shift, we can take the pressure off other countries like Bangladesh and China to produce our clothing and accessories. Offshore sourcing as we know is a major human rights issue with many workers being underpaid, abused, and over worked. So, do you think that this shoe could push our industry back to domestically produced goods? Well it’s definitely a start, and with our ever-evolving technology I’m sure we will find new ways to produce goods without human interaction.

Here is another link to a video further explaining the Futurecraft 4D concept!

Would you guys buy a pair? Let me know in the comments.




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