Over the course of the last few years, there have been 3D printed high heel shoes popping up all around the world, whether it be on the fashion runway, or just on 3D printing file sharing sites like Thingiverse and MyMiniFactory. While there have been some really cool designs that have been created, the main issue that arises when 3D printing shoes, especially on consumer level 3D printers, is that it is seemingly impossible to create a shoe which is both fashionable and comfortable at the same time.
One designer, by the name of Michela Badia seems to have come up with a solution with her latest Aphrodite Shoes.
Inspired by beauty and sensuality, Badia set out to create a shoe that could be both fashionable and easy to wear. To do so, he used a completely different method of 3D printing. Instead of printing out the entire shoe with hard PLA or ABS plastic, thus creating a shoe that would probably cause more blisters than compliments, he came up with a rather innovative idea.
To ensure that the shoes not only looked nice, but also would be comfortable on the foot, Badia printed parts of the shoe using flexible NinjaFlex filament. NinjaFlex was used on the heel and toe pads, as well as on the t-bar straps of the shoe.
“The idea was basically to design a pair of high heel shoes entirely 3D printed, so I used an original system never seen before to join the flexible part (printed in Ninjaflex) to the bottom,” Badia told 3DPrint.com.
The points of pressure on the foot are padded by the flexible NinjaFlex filament, thus creating a shock absorbing effect on one’s foot. “They are less painful than a lot of high heels,” ensured Badia.
The design for the shoes can be downloaded for free from MyMiniFactory, or if you don’t have a 3D printer, you can purchase them already printed for only $99.00. Badia told us that it takes 19 hours to print a size 6 shoe, and it took him 20 days to develop the unique design.
Badia is becoming a well known shoe designer on MyMiniFactory. These are not the first shoes that he has designed and printed. In fact, we did a story back in June on a sneaker-like shoe that he had developed.
What do you think about these latest shoes from Michela Badia? Discuss in the 3D Printed Shoes forum thread on 3DPB.com.