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With the continuous maturity of 3D printing technology and the rapid development of material technology, 3D printing technology has been applied to the production field Many international brands such as Nike, Adidas, New Balance and Under Armour have introduced 3D printing technology to mass produce shoe midsole. Among many domestic sports brands, Peak, Li Ning and Anta have been engaged in the research of 3D printing technology in 12, 13 and 18 years respectively.

3D printing shoes

The value of 3D printing technology

3D printing technology has a very significant application value in the field of shoemaking. On the one hand, the powerful shaping ability of 3D printing gives designers more room to play and improves the freedom of design; On the other hand, 3D printing is fast, accurate and customized, which is incomparable to traditional shoe mold manufacturing. It can comprehensively reduce costs from shoe pattern design, mold and production process. In the future, 3D printing technology will become an indispensable part of shoe leather intelligent manufacturing field.

As we all know, as a big country in the shoemaking industry, most of China's shoemaking enterprises are located in East China, led by Zhejiang, and South China, mainly in Guangdong, Fujian, and Sichuan provinces, while the shoemaking enterprises in East China, mainly in Zhejiang Wenzhou Belt, are mainly leather shoes. According to incomplete statistics, 80% of China's sports shoes production bases are mainly located in South China.

Last year, the sales volume of sports shoes in China has exceeded 300 million pairs, and there are more than 3500 manufacturers with sports shoes, sports brands and supporting manufacturing scale in South China. It can be seen that the sports shoes industry has a decisive market share in South China.

Milestone Progress of Chinese Local Sports Brands

PEAK has already made a pair of Chinese * running shoes using 3D printing technology in May 2017, turning the whole 3D printing design simulation from a simulation process into a process of starting product promotion.

In June of the same year, PEAK launched version 2.0 of this product, which is also a running shoe that can be mass produced and sold with the 3D printing technology of the Chinese * pair application. At the time of launch, it sold 999 pairs online, which is undoubtedly a milestone progress of this technology!

PEAK 3D printing shoes version 2.0

Since PEAK began to engage in relevant research in 12 years, the Institute has purchased * 3D printing equipment: Shanghai Liantai SLA equipment (model Z350) in 13 years, and now there are six 3D printing equipment in total. As one of the leaders of domestic brands, PEAK is developing towards mass production and personalized customization, promoting the development of the whole market.

"What does 60 days mean? In traditional shoe making, it takes less than 60 days for a designer to complete the design, submit it to the mold factory, draw a 2D drawing, go to the 3D modeling, carve a wooden model, confirm it three or five times, open a sample mold, make a sample, and then make a full set of molds. * After that, you will see a pair of soles on our feet.

Today, we use 3D printing technology to make a sole. It takes 6 days from the time when the designer has this idea and then draws a picture, completes modeling to the time when the 3D printing partner prints the sole! "Said Cui Yaguang, the former director of PEAK Sports Beijing Product Research and Development Center.

Cui Yaguang, former director of PEAK Sports Beijing Product R&D Center

In addition, when it comes to Chinese sports brands, there is no doubt that Li Ning, a big brother, will not be avoided. As early as 2013, Li Ning also began to study 3D printing technology. At that time, * sets of equipment purchased were laser sintering 3D printers of EOS nylon materials. Up to now, there are 3 sets of equipment to meet the process requirements of different materials.

Li Ning 3D Running Shoes

At the Paris Fashion Week in 2018, the first 3D running shoes that can achieve personalized customization made an amazing appearance. The running shoes used parametric modeling to achieve the functional needs of different shoe regions, and introduced Chinese brands to the world again! Like Peak, Li Ning's future strategy will also focus on the mass production of 3D printing shoes.

Two well-known Chinese brands have made milestone progress in the research and application of 3D printing in the past two years. What further exploration will the two enterprises have in this technology in the future? Which 3D printing equipment and material suppliers will cooperate with? What is the trend of China's footwear market in the past two years? What is the development trend of the industry in the future? At TCT Shenzhen, technical experts from local sports brands such as Li Ning and Peak will discuss and answer.

Transferred from: Zhongguancun

Keywords: 3D printing, sports shoes, Li Ning, PEAK, Shanghai 3D printing, UV curing, nylon, metal 3D printing