100,000 Pairs of adidas 3D-Printed Sneakers to Hit the Market by Year's End
Still salty on the ‘L’ you took on the ? Well, things are looking up all of the sudden. Striving to bring 3D printing to the masses, adidas have plans to introduce 100,000 pairs of 3D-printed sneakers to market before the end of 2018.
, adidas will produce plastic midsoles with the help of new 3D technology created by Silicon Valley startup Carbon.
‘We have a really aggressive plan to scale this,’ says James Carnes, adidas’ strategy vice president. ‘We are scaling a production. The plan will put us as the (world’s) biggest producer of 3D-printed products.’
By Q3, adidas says it will have access to enough printers from Carbon to make one million pairs of 3D-printed sneakers, with ambitions to increase the number moving forward.
Carnes compares the brand’s 3D potential to . Introduced in 2013, only 100,000 BOOST-soled pairs were made in the first year of production. Now, over 50 million BOOST sneakers are produced year, making up over 10 per cent of adidas’ 400-million-strong production.
Who knows, in a few years’ time, you might be able to walk into your local sports store and cop a pair GR Futurecraft 4D 4.0s?