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Custom Kicks in Two Hours: ECCO’s Data-Driven Bespoke Footwear Design

In the 1920s, radiation was so poorly understood that shoe stores would X-ray customers’ shod feet to check the fit.

Lasers are decidedly less harmful than fluoroscopes, and now Innovation Lab ECCO is using the former not to check fit, but to create fit. A new pilot project launched at W-21, their concept store in Amsterdam, seeks to harness technology in order to provide walk-in customers with bespoke kicks within a matter of hours.

Called QUANT-U, the process consists of first laser-scanning customers’ feet. 

Next the customer pulls on a pair of sensor-filled shoes and spends half a minute walking on a treadmill. This set-up harvests precise data about the customer’s gait as well as how their body weight is distributed across their soles.

Midsoles are then immediately designed to perfectly accommodate the customer’s particulars, and the file is sent to an on-site 3D printer that spits it out in silicone. 

The resultant midsoles are integrated into ECCO’s Flexure shoes, which are essentially outsole platforms, and the customer has a perfect fit.

Customers pay €100 (USD $120) extra for the QUANT-U process, which takes a couple of hours start-to-finish. This type of process, along with Adidas’ trials of on-demand clothing, might be the thing that gives brick-and-mortar stores a fighting chance in a world dominated by online shopping.

http://www.core77.com/posts/77964/Custom-Kicks-in-Two-Hours-ECCOs-Data-Driven-Bespoke-Footwear-Design