Adidas and Carbon announce their partnership to create new 3D printed shoes

Sports brand giant Adidas has announced their partnership with California based startup “Carbon” to create a brand new 3D printed shoe: the Futurecraft 4D. Using Digital Light Synthesis (a process created by Carbon) to create the soles of the shoes, the companies are looking to create 100,000 pairs before 2019.

Adidas is no stranger to 3D printing, having already used it to create products before; such as their shoes made from plastic waste. Adidas, however, is not the first company to move towards innovations like this, with similar initiatives previously being released by Nike and Under Armor. Although this initiative may not be new, Adidas is looking to push their products even further through this collaboration with Carbon, a company who is best known for their 3D printing technology CLIP (Continuous Liquid Interface Production).

“With Digital Light Synthesis, we venture beyond limitations of the past, unlocking a new era in design and manufacturing”, explains Eric Liedtke, the Adidas group Executive Board Member for Global Brands. “One driven by athlete data and agile manufacturing processes”. Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) closely resembles the 3D Digital Light Processing process, in which light is projected to set the different layers of resin. With DLS, it is simply adding oxygen together with the projected light.