Technologies for mass scale customisation is being developed by several big players in the market. However, also consider that there are already hundreds of thousands of different shoe styles in the market, so finding a pair of perfectly fitting shoes can to a large degree be considered a search problem rather than a customisation problem. With appropriate 3D scanning technology, this can be done today.
Disclosure: I work for a technology provider in this field.
Re:When Shoes Were Fit with X-Rays
by TaylorAlexander on Friday January 04, 2019 @02:29AM
(#18822548)
Lately I’ve been thinking about the connection between markets and “othering”. I’m wondering if distributed manufacturing can help, and interested in DIY “micro factories” that can be made in a small shop using 3D printers and basic hand tools.
So it’s a different approach. Basically I’m starting to make better and better robots with my 3D printers and I want to make open source factories with the tech. :)
What I’d really like though is a machine that can construct a good shoe specifically for your foot in a reasonable amount of time. Even if it took a week, I might be willing to wait for that for custom fit shoes (as I do for new glasses for example).
Generally I could build this machine and would really like to, but I haven’t found a good idea on materials. If you could make them from recycled bottles and natural fibers it would be interesting too. Or maybe a totally woven shoe? Does anyone have any YouTube links or similar on unique ways to make shoes that could be done in a machine of some limited cost and complexity?