Recreus Designs Comfortable 3D Printable Women’s Sandals Using Filaflex Filament

There is no doubt in my mind that one day we will all be wearing our 3D prints on our bodies. Whether it is clothing, shoes, hats, or jewelry, there will come a time when almost everyone you see will be wearing something that has been 3D printed. This won’t happen overnight, but as several aspects of 3D printing progress (material capabilities, printer speeds, and ease of use), and then converge, 3D printers will be much more integrated into our daily lives.  It’s just a matter of time

When I sit back and think about putting on a pair of 3D printed shoes, the first thing that pops into my head are images of blisters all over my feet. 3D printed shoes must be comfortable, and that is nearly impossible when using the typical ABS or PLA hard plastic filaments. Also the lack of stretching ability is a problem with rigid materials on shoes, because you need a tight fit, which only flexible materials can offer. This is why the typical shoe is made from leather or cloth, not rigid plastics.

One company,called Recreus, understands this. They are the manufacturer of the popular flexible filament called Filaflex. There are already many awesome uses of their rubber-like filament, but Recreus is not yet 100% satisfied. Earlier this year they gained quite a bit of media attention for their Sneakerbot II 3D printed sneakers. They strive to provide amazing applications for their filament, and just recently have come up with yet another design for comfortable 3D printed shoes – this time women’s sandals. The sandals, simply called ‘Recreus Sandals’ are easily printed, and scaled for any person’s foot size.

Ignacio García, the founder of Recreus explained to 3DPrint.com that they would like to see “women start to use Filaflex because we are sure that they will find a lot of useful and fashionable ideas.”

In the early going, a solid majority of 3D printer owners have been men. With that said, women probably have more uses for 3D printers, at least from a fashion standpoint. Because of this unbalance of the sexes within the space, most of the designs one would find online are catered towards men.

What the Recreus Sandals offers, is an awesome project for women to get excited about. Not only do the sandals fit well, but they are comfortable, as well as aesthetically pleasing. They are actually something one would consider buying from a store.

The full instructions and design files to print these sandals at home can be found here. Garcia explained to us that he used the Craftware slicing software for this project, which allowed him to place the material supports where ever he wanted to, and once printed the supports were extremely easy to remove. If you happen to print these Recreus sandals out, please post some pictures in the Recreus sandal forum thread on 3DPB.com.  Check out the video below of the sandals being printed out.