No, instead it packages its shoes in a cardboard tube fitted with 3D printed end pieces-which made the unboxing all the more exciting. Retraction Footwear hasn’t settled to ship its product in a classic shoe box. Step 3: The first tryĪfter a few weeks traveling across the globe, my Retraction flip flops arrived at my home in Montreal. The finished product is then quality checked, packaged and shipped. Once the printing is done, minimal post processing is needed: a Retraction Footwear employee simply sands down the bottom of the sole, and carefully inserts the strap and secures it with glue and a reinforcing bit. For material, Retraction Footwear uses Ninjatek’s NinjaFlex TPU filament, which offers a high degree of flexibility while still remaining strong and durable. Casson tells us that the printers have been converted to direct drive with high-end extruders and hot ends, which improve the overall quality of the print. The printing process itself is carried out using heavily modified Creality machines with 400 x 400 mm print beds (which can accommodate large shoe sizes). Finally, the strap component is 3D printed separately. From there, the 3D printer gets to work, depositing layers of a flexible filament onto the print bed, building up the shoe from the sole, to the inner cushioned lattice, to the footbed. Once an order has been placed with Retraction Footwear, the customer’s options are processed and prepared for printing. Though I wasn’t able to see the production of my flip flops first hand, I was provided with an in depth description of the process and an exclusive video clip of my shoes being made. From the customer side, that’s pretty much it! You then place your order and wait for the delivery. As you can see, I’ve opted for a versatile black and white color scheme. The color options, as of writing, are black, white, green and red. Presently, the color options are fairly limited, but the ability to combine various colors is fun. With the sizing selected, you then choose your flip flop color combination, including sole color, foot bed color and strap color. To determine the cushioning level of the sandal, clients also have to input their weight category. In any case, a detailed sizing guide does make it easy to find which category you fall into, though I recommend having a ruler handy just to be sure. The last two options are still fairly standardized, with a choice between narrow, normal and wide, and flat, regular and high, respectively. In terms of the sizing, customers can input three measurements: length of foot, width of foot and arch height. Retraction Footwear has opted for the latter, which does make the ordering process pretty simple from the user perspective. With most tailor-made shoe products that utilize 3D printing, one of two routes is taken: using 3D scanning or a similar biometric technology to capture the foot’s measurements or simply measuring the foot the old fashioned way-with a ruler. Read on for my personal review.īefore revealing my thoughts on the physical product, I want to take you all through the ordering process for the custom flip flops. Even more recently, I had the opportunity to try out a pair of the custom 3D printed sandals. Earlier this year, Retraction Footwear finally launched its 3D printed footwear product. And third, 3D printing enables the shoes to be made with minimal material waste. Second, it meant he had the opportunity to create customizable products for customers. There were a few factors that inspired Casson from the beginning: for one, he saw 3D printing as an opportunity to keep production local within Australia. Retraction Footwear was founded in 2018 by Australian engineer Brett Casson, who has spent the past two years developing a customizable 3D printed flip flop. One of these companies, Retraction Footwear, comes from Australia, where flip flops are a footwear essential. Recently, the market for flip flops has become somewhat more interesting, with a small number of companies leveraging 3D printing and mass customization concepts to produce customer-tailored footwear. Whether you call them flip flops, plakkies or thongs, these shoes are a summer staple across the world. Stay up to date with everything that is happening in the wonderful world of AM via our LinkedIn community.
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