The American DSW shoe network has offered its customers a service for creating shoes on a 3D printer. The retailer has set up two pop-up stores inside its flagship shoe department stores, located in Columbus, Ohio. DSW has partnered with Feetz, an enterprise that specializes in custom-made shoes using 3D technology.
Now visitors to two DSW stores can participate in creating an individual shoe design and see a 3D printer in operation.
Feetz's SizeMe technology uses a mobile foot scanner that captures the most accurate foot parameters of the client. Production of the finished pair takes no more than two weeks. Shoes are made from rubber and plastic, materials that can be recycled up to twenty times, so the company encourages its customers to bring their worn shoes in exchange for a discount for the purchase of the next pair.
Feetz was founded in 2013 by the American mathematician and entrepreneur Lucy Bird, who did not like standard-sized shoes, and he found a way to produce shoes according to an individual measure. DSW announced an investment in start-up Feetz this July. “Thanks to the partnership with DSW, we have the opportunity to introduce the world of 3D printing to customers of this shoe retail. Now people will be able to understand how 3D technologies can create shoes by an individual measure, they will be able to see and touch a product that is useful both for the consumer and for the environment, ”Byrd commented.
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