Everyone’s favourite sports wear manufacturer / superhero outfitter Under Armour has joined the host of shoe companies that are 3D printing for their kicks.
From March 18th, 96 pairs of the strangely named UA Architech shoes will go on sale for $300 (R4 601). What do you get for that silly amount of money? Well, you get a limited edition shoe (for bragging rights), a SLS 3D printed midsole (for the hell of it) and a design made with Autodesk’s Within programme (because it needed to be designed somewhere).
Gizmodo was able to visit Under Armour’s Innovation Lab to see the shoes made as well as being put to the test by machines. As Gizmodo themselves stated, they never actually got to strap on the shoe and see if there’s any immediately noticeable benefit to the 3D Print.
According to Under Armour’s tests, the shoes behaves similarly to regular trainers in terms of running and bending in the mid section. The only benefit seemed to be extra stability which comes in handy during weight training.
While this all sounds fine and dandy, this is most likely another ‘Me Too!” product that’s good for some PR, and the limited batch run means there won’t be too many in the world to try and get a reasonable sample to test. Add in the fact that it’s priced close to the silly side of things, and we’re still not holding our breath for 3D printed clothes.
One last thing we’d like to point out is that Under Armour , despite being a US company, still spells the word “armour” with a “U”, instead of the regular US spelling that precludes the letter. Good on them.
[Source – 3D Printing Industry]
