Why the first 3D printed shoes you wear will be handmade

3-D printing enthusiasts dream of a future where instead of buying a pair of shoes, you’ll buy a digital file and print them at home. There’ll be no more need for one-day shipping or free returns, just a capable 3D-printer. But while this future is certainly convenient, it also completely eliminates the makers and together with them all craft and care. This future is carefully engineered and sterile.

Footwear is something that has never fully lost the legacy of craftsmanship despite industrialization. Skilled labor, not better machines and molds, is still what determines the quality of the end product. It has remained an intrinsic part of every pair of shoes and the greatest differentiator for luxury brands.

Footwear has always demanded artistry and craftsmanship, but industrial supply chains have never been able to supply it. Anyone who’s walked a full day in an average pair of shoes can relate. Shoes don’t have to be innately uncomfortable; engineering them for mass manufacturing just reduced cost and along with it the complexity and nuance that belongs to every foot.

It is not for 3D printing to simply deliver more products faster, but rather to finally infuse mass manufacturing with the craft of the artisan. Done right, digital manufacturing will allow each pair of shoes to be a blend of the craftsman and this new set of tools. It can deliver to a trained hand a few tailored components made on-demand. Rather than spend time on fabrication, the artisan is free to focus on the detail of custom pieces, accommodating each person’s individuality for a perfect fit.

This is how 3D-printing will reinvent footwear, and apparel, and many other products besides: not by removing the human hand but by celebrating it. We’re bringing artisanal footwear back, at the speed and scale of mass manufacturing. That future is carefully human.