NEW YORK — Eric Liedtke called it the “holy grail” as he pointed to the Futurecraft 4D. On Thursday at a private event in Manhattan, adidas’ Head of Global Brands held in his left hand the Futurecraft 4D, a running shoe launched by adidas in collaboration with Silicon Valley-based technology startup Carbon.
With the use of digital light, liquid resins and oxygen-permeable materials — through a process called Digital Light Synthesis from Carbon — the Futurecraft 4D includes a new manufacturing and production process without 3D printing. It uses running data from adidas’ research over the past 17 years to engineer a new piece of footwear.
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“With Digital Light Synthesis, we venture beyond limitations of the past, unlocking a new era in design and manufacturing. One driven by athlete data and agile manufacturing processes,” Liedtke said in a statement. “By charting a new course for our industry, we can unleash our creativity — transforming not just what we make, but how we make it.”
Futurecraft 4D’s midsole was created without the necessary traditional prototyping and moulding, essentially increasing “speed to market,” according to Matt Powell, Sports Industry Analyst at The NPD Group.
“It takes two of the most time consuming steps of manufacturing out of the manufacturing equation,” Powell told SportTechie. “So much time is spent on prototyping products, building models, getting feedback, building prototypes and then once it’s settled, you have to build the tooling that makes it. That takes a long time. This eliminates both of those steps. You move right into manufacturing, and you’re tweaking the manufacturing as you’re going along to get it right.”
He added where traditional footwear takes 18 months to go from concept to retail, this process could cut that time in half or even a third.
“We don’t fully know yet the potential, but it will clearly get the product to market much faster,” Powell said.
Added Kansas City Chiefs safety Eric Berry to SportTechie: “The look of (the Futurecraft 4D) is very distinct, and it’s something that no one is following. I have them on right now. They’re comfortable but I feel like they have even more stability. I’m getting in a workout tonight, so I’m itching to try them out.”
Three hundreds pairs of the Futurecraft 4D will be released to friends and family this month followed by 5,000 pairs for retail later this fall and winter.
“We’re enabling engineers and designers to create previously impossible designs, and businesses to evolve their offerings, and FutureCraft 4D is evidence of that,” Dr. Joseph DeSimone, Carbon Co-Founder and CEO, said in a statement. Our partnership with adidas will serve as an ongoing testament to how the digital revolution has reached the global manufacturing sector, changing the way physical goods are designed, engineered, made and delivered.”