Footwear

Manufacturers and suppliers designing footwear including athletic, designer and casual shoes have a real need for concept models to speed and improve the often rushed design process. Concept models are an essential part of the design process in every industry from automotive to footwear.

Challenge

Clear communication between designers and manufacturers is crucial during the design process, because consensus on a design is critical before investment in expensive tooling. In addition, reducing design cycle time is critical to getting new concepts to market ahead of the competition. The traditional method of modeling designs out of clay or milling wood is often expensive, time-consuming and inaccurate.

Solution

• Communicate with Customers: ZPrinters are capable of creating appearance prototypes of any complexity directly from digital data, quickly and inexpensively.
• Communicate with Vendors: ZPrinters allow footwear companies to print out complex designs for proofing and communicating with vendors. The printers are also used to communicate across continents by sending files electronically and printing at different plant locations.
• Produce Functional Prototypes: ZPrinted models can be used to create RTV molds quickly and inexpensively. The molds can then be used to create prototypes with the look and feel of the finished product.
• Print Full Color Parts: The unique capability of ZPrinters to create full color parts quickly and inexpensively results in more complete communication of design intent and more constructive feedback.

Customer Story