Materialise and HP to Advance the Design and Creation of Customized 3D-Printed Footwear

Materialise, through a partnership with RSPrint, has entered into an agreement with HP to scale an end-to-end 3D solution to design and manufacture fully customized 3D-printed insoles. FitStation powered by HP will integrate Materialise software for 3D design automation, print preparation and production management. This alliance offers footwear brands the opportunity to express their unique brand proposition by allowing them to produce truly individualized products on-demand.

FitStation powered by HP is a platform that delivers custom-fitted and individualized footwear through innovative 3D scanning, dynamic gait analysis and manufacturing technologies. It provides individual off-the-shelf shoe and insole recommendations, 3D-printed insoles and individualized custom footwear. The Materialise software suite will now be integrated into FitStation, enabling brands to design innovative and customized insoles. The Materialise software suite manages and automates the print preparation and production process of the insoles, allowing manufacturers to scale their 3D printing business with efficiency and reliability.

"3D Printing holds the promise of revolutionizing the footwear industry by offering a level of customization never seen before”, says Fried Vancraen, Materialise CEO. This makes it possible and cost-effective to mass manufacture entirely individualized products. As a complementary manufacturing technology 3D Printing allows for fundamental design optimizations and functional improvements, such as lighter designs, that are impossible to create with standard manufacturing technologies.

3D Printing also empowers companies to transition towards an end-to-end digital manufacturing process, allowing for decentralized, on-demand manufacturing. As a result, retailers will be able to sell products they don’t have to keep in inventory. In addition to minimizing stock-related costs and risks, retailers can also anticipate fewer product returns by providing customers with a precise fit and individualized design.

Materialise, with over 27 years of experience in 3D Printing, helps footwear brands to unlock the full potential of the technology by offering support and automation during every step of the Additive Manufacturing process, from design to printed part. Materialise is a pioneer in creating personalized 3D printed insoles. With the introduction of Phits in 2014, Materialise, together with gait-analysis experts RS Scan, became the first company in the world to create 3D-printed insoles based on dynamic measurement footscans.

Materialise is also the driving force behind transformations in other industries. When the hearing-aids industry discovered the transformative power of 3D Printing, the change was fast and irreversible. Within 500 days, over 90% of hearing aids in the US made the switch from classic manufacturing to 3D printing. Materialise is now using this blueprint to also transform the eyewear industry.

About Materialise
Materialise incorporates 27 years of 3D printing experience into a range of software solutions and 3D printing services, which together form the backbone of the 3D printing industry. Materialise’s open and flexible solutions enable players in a wide variety of industries, including healthcare, automotive, aerospace, art and design, and consumer goods, to build innovative 3D printing applications that aim to make the world a better and healthier place. Headquartered in Belgium, with branches worldwide, Materialise combines the largest group of software developers in the industry with one of the largest 3D printing facilities in the world. For additional information, please visit: www.materialise.com.

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