When Lionel Messi received his 8th Ballon d’Or nomination, Adidas wanted to gift him something special. However, the company didn’t just want its gift to be unique, but wanted the packaging to be unique, as well. So, the sporting goods giant turned to WASP, an Italian 3D printing company, to create a truly novel container for Messi, and what they made is stunning.
Now, Adidas is no stranger to 3D printing. The company has embraced the technology to develop a Smart Factory to manufacture some of the most efficient running shoes on the planet. This time, however, Adidas was going to use the technology to build a one-of-a-kind package and honor Messi’s achievement.
Adidas had initially reached out to WASP after Messi’s 2023 Ballon d’Or nomination, looking for a company that could turn its concept into reality, and produce a shoebox that would contain a limited edition pair of shoes made specifically for Messi. The sporting goods firm wanted the shape to be inspired by a soccer ball and challenged WASP’s engineers to design one. What the 3D printer manufacturer came up with was a dodecahedron style box, seen below, and I think they bent it like Beckham.
The box was printed in four pieces: top, bottom, cover, and shoe platform, and assembled after. The dodecahedron was made from WASP’s nylon carbon and WASP used their 4070 ZX professional FDM 3D printer to build each part. The printer took over 200 hours non-stop to print the packaging, and features Messi’s and Adidas’s logos on the shell.
The printer itself is quite impressive too. It contained all-metal double gear extruders which WASP says can offer twice the grip and three times the force compared to common extruders, uses Vacuum active Control (VAC) to reduce micromovements during printing, and has a large build volume that can accommodate most builds.
All in all, this was a neat project Adidas commissioned WASP to build, and I love the ingenuity taken. It shows off the capabilities 3D printing can offer, and created a truly one-of-a-kind present for Messi.
Subscribe to Our Email Newsletter
Stay up-to-date on all the latest news from the 3D printing industry and receive information and offers from third party vendors.
You May Also Like
Gorilla Sports GE’s First 3D Printed Titanium Cast
How do you help a gorilla with a broken arm? Sounds like the start of a bad joke a zookeeper might tell, but it’s an actual dilemma recently faced by...
Nylon 3D Printed Parts Made More Functional with Coatings & Colors
Parts 3D printed from polyamide (PA, Nylon) 12 using powder bed fusion (PBF) are a mainstay in the additive manufacturing (AM) industry. While post-finishing processes have improved the porosity of...
$25M to Back Sintavia’s Largest Expansion of Metal 3D Printing Capacity Since 2019
Sintavia, the digital manufacturing company specializing in mission-critical parts for strategic sectors, announced a $25 million investment to increase its production capacity, the largest expansion to its operations since 2019....
Velo3D Initiates Public Offering in a Bid to Strengthen Financial Foundations and Drive Future Growth
Velo3D (NYSE: VLD) has been among a number of publicly traded 3D printing firms that have attempted to weather the current macroeconomic climate. After posting a challenging financial report for 2023,...