Fashionable 3D Printing

A recent post by Core77 described how 3D printers are being used to produce one-off fashion shoes. While we are somewhat skeptical of the fashion score of these particular heels, the idea is interesting: print a newly designed pair of shoes each time you go out; recycle the material into a new pair for the next evening!

We suspect the number of 3D shoe designs might be exhausted within a few months, but on the other hand, there is Imelda.

Here's the interesting thing: the shoe-printing idea seems to have spread beyond the tech space. We noticed a followup article posted on "Diary of a Smart Chick", in the "Fashion" category, where writer Kathryn Vercillo muses on the amazing ability to create fashion right in your own home:

These printers have come down in cost enough to be accessible to small and mid-sized businesses today. Wouldn’t it be neat if they eventually come down in price far enough that individual people like you and me could have these types of printers in our homes. One product that we might want to design and print could be shoes.

Could we be seeing the leading edge of 3D printing knowledge starting to hit the mainstream?

Via Diary of a Smart Chick, Core77