Additive Manufacturing in the Sport industry

“Making sport better” is the direct or indirect credo for most professionals working or aspiring to work in the sport industry, and this, regardless of the sport activity. For professionals who are on this mission, a means to an end has often been to rely on the capabilities of technologies; and trust us, there are a lot.

To provide a few figures, there are about 8,000 indigenous sports and sporting games. In this list, over 800 sports are currently said to be played around the world on a regular basis and about 200 sports are recognized sports with national and international federations.

However, Additive Manufacturing technologies have already played a key role for only 12 disciplines out of these 200. What are these AM applications? What are the AM technologies that enable them? What challenges and possible solutions may help sport companies – and eventually providers of AM technologies – move forward?

Additive Manufacturing companies & professionals, together with sport companies but also researchers continue to explore what is possible to achieve in various fields of the sport industry.