The new Adidas Futurecraft shoe is displayed in New York City, New York, U.S. April 6, 2017. SCI-VERSE/Abraham Junior

Adidas launched a new sneaker on Friday with a 3D-printed sole that it plans to mass-produce next year, part of a broader push by the German sportswear firm to react faster to changing fashions and create more customized products.

Adidas already lets people customize the color and pattern of shoes ordered online but new 3D printing methods will make small production runs, limited edition shoes and even soles designed to fit an individual's weight and gait economical.


The new version is better suited for mass production – Adidas plans on selling 5,000 pairs this upcoming fall, which will scale up to more than 100,000 pairs by the end of 2018. While the company hasn’t announced the price, expect the first run to still be priced as a limited edition shoe. The first 3D runners retailed for $333, but sold secondhand for many times that.


Rivals Nike, Under Armour and New Balance have also been experimenting with 3D printing but have so far only used the technique to make prototypes, soles tailored for sponsored athletes and a handful of high-priced novelty shoes.
That's because traditional 3D printers are slower, more expensive and often create an inferior product than the injection moulds for plastic that are currently used to produce hundreds of millions of shoes each year, mostly in Asia.


The Silicon Valley company that created the method, Carbon, say it’s faster and more adaptable than traditional additive printing, and can make mass-production 3D printing a reality. Carbon is financed by funds set up by Google and General Electric, and say its methods allow for companies to go from design to product faster than ever. They also claim the final materials are more robust and flexible than traditional injection moulded plastics.