Under Armour has announced that they are now launching a limited number of 3D printed training shoes for the everyday athlete.
“Part of this is to be the first mover,” Chris Lindgren, Under Armor vice president of outdoor and training footwear, tells SI.com. “A lot of competitors talk about it, but we like to get it done. We want to see what the consumer has to say.”
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This is far from a full blown release for Under Armour. The sports apparel company will release just 96 (a tip of the hat to the company’s launch in 1996) pairs of the Architech 3D shoes. Lindgren also mentioned that through conversations with athletes they found out that athletes were switching between a stability shoe for weightlifting and an agility shoe for speed exercises during workouts. The goal was to look to produce a shoe that had the versatility to enable the athletes to not have to switch shoes to cater to specific workouts.
The design of the show is designed to help move with the athlete during strenuous workouts. The heel is the component of the shoe that is the 3D printed piece and is the combination of a patented process to bond color to the cage of the shoe as well as provide what Lindgren called a “trampoline effect” to provide extra cushion based on impact or stress placed in the heel during workouts.
This design was made possible by the 3D printing tech and wouldn’t have the same visual appeal as a shoe made traditionally. Not to mention, it would be much more costly. Additionally, the shoes can also be made to fit exactly how an athlete’s foot is shaped since they are specifically printed.
Lindgren sums it up well: “Three-D printing is a way to get all that crap out of the way and get right to the essential piece you want to design.”
Under Armour had more than 80 athletes participate in physical wear testing of the Architech.
Overall these won’t be the last 3D printed shoes for Under Armour in 2016, but they represent the first chance for the company to undergo the process and get customer feedback from the limited release.
As the feedback comes in and the manufacturing process gets more well known, expect much more customization added and additional designs infused. One process type for this from Under Armour has been consumers going online and choosing all the parts from a virtual setting in order to make their shoe with the parts they want.
A second idea is that athletes could enter an Under Armour studio for a foot scan and then the shoe gets customized completely to an athlete’s personal settings based on highly specific data.
As Lindgren left it with Sports Illustrated:
“It is the very early days, but it is really exciting to finally see the manufacturing side change and get to true customization,” Lindgren says.