Designer Creates Seven 3D Printed Heels Representing the Seven Deadly Sin

Shoe shopping can be regarded as a fairly widespread sin for many women around the globe. Well, a sinful pleasure, to be exact.  “Just this one pair and that’s it!”, “I must/need/absolutely can’t live without these!” and “Come to mama!” are just some of commonly used phrases by women who have encountered yet another pair of their latest irresistible foot adornment.

Perhaps Belgian shoe designer Katrien Herdewyn had this in mind when she created a series of 3D printed heels, each one representing one of the 7 deadly sins. Regardless of her inspiration, Herdewyn, an electrical engineering, material sciences and nanotechnology graduate from the University of Leuven, currently working on a PhD in Physics and studying shoe design at the Academy of Fine Arts, Sint-Niklaas (SASK) has produced a thought-provoking, visually captivating shoe collection.The concept revolves around a basic, detachable 3D printed heel, adorned by different shaped particles including tongues, teeth, fans and leaves, to depict the 7 sins, creating just as many different heels to choose from.

Creating the 3D heel models proved to be a daunting task for Herdewyn, as each piece needed to be merged together into a large mesh. The intricacy involved in the detailed models required a lot of stitching before the actual printing took place. Replicators, surface particle generators and prototype sources were used to create a rough layout. At that point, the particles were frozen into place and then hand scaled, before finally being placed correctly onto the underlying surface. Herdewyn decided to first create a base model heel that could attach and fit onto different shoe bodies, as necessary. This model was then used to build the 7 different shaped heels.

The sinful shoe collection is not the first time the talented Belgian has ventured to blend 3D printing with shoe design. Her collection titled Nano Ft. was nominated for the Muuse x Vogue Talents – Young Vision Award for Accessories and is up to the final running.

“I am extremely excited about my nomination for the Muuse x Vogue Talents – Young Vision Award for Accessories. I worked very hard on this collection and I was very happy when I heard I was one of the selected designers. With my background in engineering, I try and combine new technologies with traditional craftsmanship. I believe this is where the future lies. 3D printing offers so many possibilities; you can do anything you can imagine. But when it comes to shoes, a designer always has to take into account that you have to be able to wear and walk in the shoe. I want to design shoes that are high tech and high fashion at the same time. And progressing in this competition would mean a tremendous boost for my shoe designing career and fulfilling my dream, ” says Herdewyn.

Judging by this stellar start, this designer will be the one to watch when it comes to innovative, 3D print-involving shoe design and we certainly can’t wait to see what other sins are in store.  Let’s hear your thoughts on Herdewyn’s work in the 3D printed heel forum thread on 3DPB.com