Plausibility of 3D Printing a Sandal for Startup (CASE STUDY)

[Kooglie]

hello 3D Print Board community,

I have heard great things about this website, and its community, so I thought this would be a perfect place to get my questions related to 3D printing answered.

I am working on a case study regarding a company that makes sandals for golfing. I was curious as to whether or not it is possible, and plausible, for a young company to provide the option of 3D printing sandals to provide the flexibility of more customization (I.E. a school adding their logo/colors). Are the costs associated with 3D printing such an object to extreme to consider such an option, or are they in fact more reasonable then my instincts tell me.

Cheers!

[awerby]

It would be a lot more expensive than producing sandals the conventional way. Not only is the cost much higher for 3D printing than for molding and stamping, but someone would have to do the modeling for each custom sandal, which would add time and money. Also, the process is much slower than any mass-production technique - on most machines I know of, it would take more than an hour for each one. Different colors in the same piece are difficult to achieve, and the flexible filaments (I'm assuming you wouldn't want totally rigid footwear) are trickier to use than normal ones. But if you can get several hundred dollars a pair for these things, it might work...

[CarterTG]

If your sandals are customized to the extent that the SOLES have a tread design incorporating the customized logo, then Awerby's response rings true. Reinventing the wheel for each and every sandal would be plausible if your clients keep a fleet of Bentleys to match their neckwear.

What's more attenable is 3D printing a portion of the footwear to be used as an insert or low-stress structure while the rest of it is pre-made, mass produced and ready to assemble with the 3D part.

The other customization alternative is to use laser etching...

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