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Student Creates World's Fastest Shoe With a Printer

Posted by samzenpus on from the if-you-print-it-they-will-run dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Engineer and designer Luc Fusaro from the Royal College of Art in London has developed a prototype running shoe that can be uniquely sculpted to any athlete's foot. It's as light as a feather too, weighing in at 96 grams. The prototype is aptly named, Designed to Win, and is 3D printed out of nylon polyamide powder, which is a very strong and lightweight material. The manufacturing process uses selective laser sintering (SLS), which fuses powdered materials with a CO2 laser to create an object. This process means 3D scans can be taken of the runner's foot so as to ensure the shoe matches the shape perfectly. Fusaro can also change the stiffness of the soles according to the athlete's physical abilities. The shoe can improve performance by 3.5%, meaning a 10 second 100-meter sprinter could see his time drop by 0.35 seconds, which is a huge time saving relatively speaking. Imagine if Usain Bolt put a pair of these running shoes on."

27 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. nylon fumes by Gnaythan1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wouldn't want to print this at home though... needs a specialty place... with a fume hood.

    1. Re:nylon fumes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      ...which is why you print the fume hood out first, then start printing nylon shoes.

  2. A shoe with a printer? by Baloroth · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why would I want a shoe with a printer?

    --
    "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
    1. Re:A shoe with a printer? by oneiros27 · · Score: 4, Funny

      So if his other shoe had a printer ... then he could receive faxes! brilliant!

      --
      Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
  3. Phew! by Lucas123 · · Score: 3, Funny

    From the headline, I thought he'd invented a shoe that actually printed. My dream remains alive!

  4. Designer shoes by Roberticus · · Score: 2

    I recently bought a pair of those glove-like shoes (where each toe gets its own slot) that doesn't fit my feet very well. It got me to wondering if someone could use a 3D printer and some orthogonal pictures of my feet to make a better-fitting pair. The article suggests it's certainly possible, but doesn't give any sense of cost.

    1. Re:Designer shoes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      This, yeah, assuming he's talking about Vibram FiveFingers. You also want to buy a pair that fit perfectly but a hair too tight rather than a pair that fits too loose. They stretch. After three months the "too loose" pair will flop around on your foot like clown shoes. I'm on my second pair, and I love them.

    2. Re:Designer shoes by funkboy · · Score: 3, Informative

      I recently bought a pair of those glove-like shoes (where each toe gets its own slot) that doesn't fit my feet very well.

      First of all, make sure you didn't get a knock-off. The Vibram five finger shoes are cloned so much that they've been used as a case study for how counterfeiting (ehm, counterfeeting?) starts & how to prevent it.

  5. Citation needed by metrometro · · Score: 5, Insightful

    3D printing is neat and all, and congrats on a new use for the tech. But can we please put these one some people and run them around before saying bullshit like "Apparently the shoe can improve performance by 3.5%"?

    1. Re:Citation needed by reverseengineer · · Score: 5, Informative

      The article gets that wrong-- the 3.5% improvement is not something that's been specifically observed in this shoe. From the designer's site, "Scientific investigations have shown that tuning the mechanical properties of a sprint shoe to the physical abilities of an athlete can improve performance by up to 3.5%...." Which is to say, some sort of study has been done to demonstrate that custom-made track spikes can deliver that kind of improvement, but no data exists for this shoe specifically. The release on that site even goes on to note,"Fusaro continues to fine-tune the shoe: The upper is still too stiff to offer optimum speed. More flexibility and comfort needs to be added to the shoe, using a combination of different material or additive manufacturing processes that can offer different flexibilities in the same product."

      --
      "FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
    2. Re:Citation needed by HapSlappy_2222 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Depends on how you fluff the math, as always. What if I said a 3.5% performance increase, but applied it to acceleration AND max speed, and then recalculated? I don't really want to do that math but I expect it'd be as far different number than a 3.5% better time.

      People that abuse statistics are the dirtiest liars of all.

    3. Re:Citation needed by gmhowell · · Score: 5, Funny

      Are you kidding? a 3.5% improvement would cut hours off of my 100 yard dash times.

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
  6. Lame article by tooyoung · · Score: 3, Informative

    The article is essentially just the summary. The article links to another article, which is essentially just the summary too, although it mentions that the shoe has been tested on some world class athletes. No mention of the testing methodology though, for such a bold claim.

    1. Re:Lame article by Narrowband · · Score: 2

      It could at least specify what the 3.5 percent improvement is in comparison to. Otherwise it's pretty meaningless to make a "fastest shoe in the world" claim.

  7. ponderous by v1 · · Score: 2

    Does make one wonder where the line needs to be drawn for enhancing equipment in competition like this?

    I thought the original olympiads performed entirely naked? Even little things like swim caps can make quite a difference. Unless all the athletes have access to the same tech, it's not really fair?

    And even if they all get it, then all it means is everyone improves by the same amount, and nobody really gets anywhere (relatively) besides breaking a few more world records.

    --
    I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
    1. Re:ponderous by Sarten-X · · Score: 3, Insightful

      For all practical purposes, the major contenders do get equal access to technology, because they all have the funding to buy from the same place. The underdogs compete with older equipment, and accept that the relative performance hit is part of what makes them underdogs. If their athletes still do well (better than the equipment's performance gap would explain), they're more likely to be well-funded in the next round.

      Even with the best equipment available, the main contest is still one of skill. The best running shoe in the world won't help you if you don't have the endurance to use it or the stride to keep an appropriate pace. As I recall, some equipment will actually reduce an athlete's performance if they aren't already highly trained, because the gear is specialized for a particular use pattern. Even without the aid of a particular swimsuit, Michael Phelps is still clearly a spectacular swimmer.

      In my opinion, the Olympic motto of "faster, higher, stronger" doesn't just apply to the athletes from the participating countries. It also applies to the human race as a whole, including our technology. There should be no limit to what technology's permitted as long as it meets three criteria:

      • The technology must not harm the athlete any more than the sport itself
      • The technology must not diminish the expression of the athlete's skill, nor replace any normally-functioning part of the athlete's body, except as required by the sport itself
      • If the technology cannot be transferred or adapted to a normal human body, it must not alter the characteristics of the athlete's body in any manner to improve their performance in the sport, except as required by the sport itself.

      By this definition, almost all current training methods would be allowed, almost all prohibited substances would still be banned, and those who have medically-necessary prostheses would still compete at normal levels, as long as their prostheses don't give them superhuman performance (like extra shock absorption in a runner's legs). Any technology that's a part of the sport is obviously still allowed, just in case cyborg telekinetic dodgeball ever becomes an Olympic sport.

      --
      You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
    2. Re:ponderous by KiloByte · · Score: 2

      Even with the best equipment available, the main contest is still one of skill.

      Skill in hiding doping, to be exact.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    3. Re:ponderous by xaxa · · Score: 3, Funny

      > ...the Olympic motto of "faster, higher, stronger"...

      I thought the Olympic motto was "Winning is everything".

      I think it's been changed to "i'm lovin' it".

    4. Re:ponderous by kermidge · · Score: 2

      If I recall a-rightly, celibacy was a property matter - priest has a family they inherit a portion; no family, everything reverts to Church. The argument in favour of celibacy may've been cloaked by other stated reasons.

  8. Is this "World's Fastest Shoe" labeled: "Acme"? by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 3, Funny

    MEEPT!

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  9. Just think! by mythosaz · · Score: 2

    >a 10 second 100-meter sprinter could see his time drop by 0.35 seconds

    If it can increase performance by 100%, he can run it in zero seconds.

    Math confuses Slashdot editors.

    1. Re:Just think! by gmhowell · · Score: 2, Funny

      "scientific investigations" have shown that tuning a shoe can improve performance as much as 3.5% and that he (luc fusaro) is still tuning his shoe...

      Hmmm.... So tuning both shoes would result in a 7% increase in performance, right?

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
  10. Braaaaiiins by FatLittleMonkey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Imagine if Usain Bolt put a pair of these running shows on.

    Have years of spell-check trained us all to type perfectly spelt, but completely incorrect words? Or did we always do this? I catch myself doing it all the time. I find it amazing that your brain can think up and type a completely unrelated word, but have enough sense to spell it correctly. And to read the sentence as you type it, somehow seeing the intended word. (I'm also nervously interesting in which words I inevitably screw up in this post.)

    [lol, yeah I saw that in preview, but left it in.]

    --
    Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
    1. Re:Braaaaiiins by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Don't attribute to a lazy brain that which is adequately explained by a fat finger.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  11. Are these 5 finger shoes? by JRHelgeson · · Score: 3, Funny

    http://xkcd.com/1065/

    Guaranteed Gold Medal at the Olympics?
    But it has those creepy 5 finger toes...
    Yeah, I'll have to think about that.

    --
    Good security is based upon reality and common sense. Common sense is a function of having common knowledge.
  12. I don't care by canadiannomad · · Score: 2

    ... about improvements for top athletes and elitists. I want my own pair of *perfectly* moulded vibram five fingers! That is an idea I'd want to get behind :D

    --
    Hmm, the humour and sarcasm seem to have been be lost on you.
  13. World's best fitting condom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    scan it, print it, perfect fit inside, customizable (colors, textures, etc) outside.

    You read it here first ...