Personalized Footwear

This one is a very old idea, from 2010. I even got a domain name for it, FabSole.com. The idea never turned into a reality and I am using that domain name as my personal homepage’s address.

Fabricating computer aided footwear is not something new, but there is no aggregated facility to incorporate every phase of shoe making using computerized systems. A personalized shoe manufacturing process starts with the detailed analysis of the foot and legs. The custom shoes would be manufactured using 3d scan of a person’s feet and legs. This setup takes into account the differences between the lengths of the legs as well.

The shoes would be made of genuine leather or a durable fabric like Kevlar. The two main parts of a shoe would be processed in parallel. 3d printed soles would be designed to match the persons foot dimensions, leg heights, supination and overpronation of each foot. Depending on all these measures, different sections of the sole would be printed in different densities and materials. 3d printing is slow. Therefore, there would be a 3d printing farm to handle the demand.

In the meanwhile, the genuine leather or the durable fabric would be cut into custom pieces using laser cutting machines with cameras and projectors that inspect, position the templates for optimal yield and then cut. This setup accurately read the contour of leather and avoid poor area to improve the utilization of leather or fabric.

The assembly process would be initially done using workers. As the assembly robots are developed, the whole process would be automated. These facilities do not need to have very high production capacities. The objective of local manufacturing system is to move the production where the demand is. Therefore, compact, multi-floor factories would be built around the country to meet the demand and reduce the transport times.