3D Printed Shoes - Fusion 360

Foot wear has been around since Humans started to walk. There have been many developments in the footwear industry since then and I thought it was time for a new one. Current shoes are made using harmful materials such as glues and leather, and are manufactured using cheap labor. I graduate from Highschool soon so for a final project I wanted to eliminate these problems by making a fully 3D printable shoe.

To create your own shoes you will need 3 things

1. CAD or 3D modeling software
2. 3D printer capable of printing in TPU
3. A spool of TPU Filament

The ones I chose:

1. Fusion 360
2. Bamboo Carbon X1
3. TPU

Since these shoes will be to your own design its smartest that they are designed around your foot! I took pictures of my foot next to a ruler from the front side and top. Import these pictures into your CAD software and use the canvas feature to insert them into your 3d space. make sure your canvas is scaled correctly and that that ruler in the picture equals a 12 inches in your 3D space.

Next use the form tool to create a body that covers the entire foot. Use the sub divide tool to give you more control over the body and drag the edges until they fit the outline of the foot in all directions.

When the Foot is to your liking print it out using PLA or another cheap filament. put your foot model next to your foot if it looks similar move on, if you feel like it could be adjusted do that and reprint the model. This took me two attempts.

This First model was an extrusion based attempt. I used the sketch features to create an outline around the bottom of the foot model, I extruded that and created a sketch on surface. repeating this process I built up the rest of the shoe. I wouldn't recommend this method as you cannot easily create a tread pattern or arch support.

I printed this model using TPU but it was very uncomfortable due to the lack of support and ventilation.

This model was based off the first model but with rounded edges due to using the spline tool. I used lofting to save work with extruding. This shoe came out very large and was underwhelming due to the same reason as the first.

Using the form tool to make this version was significantly easier than the other two methods. I formed this shoe in 3 parts: Outsole, Heel, and Shoebox. This made it east to make fine adjustments on the shoe. This was the first model to feature ventilation and arch support.

After printing I noted the following problems:

• heel dug into my foot
• outsole was very thin
• shoe was hard to get on

For this model I addressed the issues in the first shoe. the heel was dropped for comfort and the shoe box was pushed forward for ease of access. The outsole was also thickened.

This shoe can still be improved but it is to the point where I would be comfortable wearing it for a day.

I wanted to attempt to make a removable outsole that does not require any additional materials to attach. I did this so the whole shoe would not need to be thrown out when the bottom wears out. I tried using male and female connectors resembling old lego technic joints as a means to attach them.

This worked well enough to keep them on the shoe but is definitely not a permanent solution and will be addressed in the future.

Using the Detachable outsole I subdivided the bottom and pulled the vertices down in a checkered pattern to create a bubble effect. This simple tread does wonder to keep the shoe from slipping.

Conclusion:

Not only do these shoes not require much hands on labor but they are also cheap to make and fully recyclable. Filament per shoe averaged about $7 per shoe including support material. old outsoles/shoes can be ground up and re-spooled into new filament.

Future Plans:

There are still many improvements that can be made on these shoes. This project was poorly documented by me so I might make some youtube tutorials as I continue to work on these. I hope this inspires other makers to explore CAD softwares and the possibilities they hold. I plan to update this or make a new instuctable as the project progresses.

Until next time

-Hayden