Friday, December 20, 2013

3d printed shoes - got me thinking

So I've posted about this before, 3d printing allows you to create shoes that will likely never exist.  Too much cost, perhaps impossible to manufacture.  That fills an interesting niche, fashion designers that want crazy heels (or lady gaga) can now have what they want by paying some artist to model it up.



Then I got to thinking that this could fill another niche, a choice of styles for crossdressers with large feet.  Seriously, I don't know how many of my followers have above a size 12 female foot (even worse if it's above 14), but the selection absolutely sucks.  Your choice is pretty much whatever "pleaser" sells, which means hooker heels.  So as long as you're okay with 5" stilletto or platforms in white, black or red then there's no issue.

So how does 3d printing help us?  Well the reason why the manufacturers won't make more styles is because they think we are a small portion of the market.  Why should they make more styles if there aren't enough buyers?

I'm actually an engineer by trade, so I do 3d modeling and I could totally see myself modeling up a pair of heels (at home of course).  I would want a starting point so I'd have to scan my foot first, and then build a shoe around that.  Of course the one issue with 3d printing is usually you can only print plastic or rubber, but not both (unless you figure out a way to join the two).  There are some newer printers that will print dual material, but I've yet to see any of the 3d printing websites offer this service just yet.

If you'll notice on most of the 3d printing heels that are worn, they are either all rubber, or they have an open back.  One idea I had was to create strappy heels.  Just print the base, but include some sort of mechanical feature on them to attach fabric straps to
 

1 comment:

  1. Wow I never it thought of that. Great idea on the strappy heels

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