Designer Ammo Liao moved to London to study, and as part of his work and study there, Liao created a shoe which uses no composites but does offer varying levels of softness, strength and flexibility in a layering process which uses 3D printing and 3D weaving. Liao says his BioKnit shoe was inspired by biomimicry principles and is produced by 3D printing textiles and melting them to create the necessary properties within the same textile-like materials. With some 330 million pairs of shoes sold in the UK each year, the lion's share of them will ultimately end up in a landfill, and once they've been dumped there, experts believe it will take them 50 years to decompose. The BioKnit shoe, Liao says, offers a solution which was designed and produced to demonstrate that using a single material to build a product is not only possible, but desirable. You can read the whole story here: http://3dprint.com/90011/3d-printed-bioknit-shoes/


Below is a photo of Liao's BioKnit shoes: