Designer Nathan Smith has been creating a lot of hype lately since he unveiled a 3D printed sneaker – The Parametriks Print 001 sneaker – created by combining Parametric Design and 3D printing.
While the latter concept is already well known, the former is described a collaborative effort between human and computer. It consists of using computational parameters to guide the design process.
For these shoes that mostly look like Crocs, Smith used a custom algorithm on Grasshopper to create a form that enveloped a foot perfectly while utilizing less material yet offering the same amount of flexibility.
This design process requires to take the wearer’s foot shape and size as a parametric input, so the computer knows what to wrap its material around. Combined with 3D printing, this process allows for further customization, and more comfort than regular mass-manufactured products.
SLS 3D Printing and TPU are at the heart of the manufacturing process, a combination that helps to ensure flexibility of the shoes. Furthermore, they feature a rather intriguing triangular mesh matrix that warps right around the wearer’s foot.
Needless to say, the holes on the shoe’s sole expose the wearer to pebbles, thorns, and water. However, the focus in this experimentation is to explore what a parametric piece of footwear looks like. So far, the result shows that there might be room to further explore the combination of Parametric Design and 3D printing.
Source: Yanko Design. Remember, you can post job opportunities in the AM Industry on 3D ADEPT Media free of charge or look for a job via our job board. Make sure to follow us on our social networks and subscribe to our weekly newsletter : Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn & Instagram ! If you want to be featured in the next issue of our digital magazine or if you hear a story that needs to be heard, make sure you send it to contact@3dadept.com