Berlin and Munich based design studio Wertel Oberfell’s Auxetic Wear is a 3D printed shoe that utilizes an auxetic structure to adapt itself to the ergonomics of its wearer’s foot. Combining traditional crafts with modern technology, the designers emulate techniques from classic shoemaker craftsmanship to devise a design that displays a stitched and glued pattern comprising of low-profile two-dimensional shapes.

Figure 1: German design studio Wertel Oberfell designs prototype Auxetic Wear.

Figure 1 shows that, it is made of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) with a Shore hardness of 98A, the semi-flexible filament offers high tear and tensile strength, and the auxetic structure expands bidirectionally as soon as a tensile force is applied. It expands or compresses on a local level to take on each ergonomic form of the foot in each instance, enhancing comfort through a distinct design.

In a reinterpretation of a classic shoe, Wertel Oberfell combines the unique auxetic design with a traditional existing sole. This allowed the team to focus their efforts on experimentation for the base pattern, the manufacturing process, and the textures and materiality, to devise an optimal design. [1]

The WertelOberfell designers began with an auxetic structure – a structure made of auxetic materials, which have a negative Poisson’s ratio, which means they thicken when stretched, un-like other materials that trend to become thinner.

They also imagined a basic structure similar to that of a skeleton that would serve to give the shoe its final shape. They arrived at a basic shape after several tests.Auxetic Wear explains the shoe’s design on its website: “The individual pieces are made with a resistant TPU (shore 98A), the auxetic structure is printed, including its reinforcement.”

They are glued together before being sewn onto the existing sole, combining traditional craftsmanship with modern technology. The final design has undergone numerous iterations.”The finished shoes are thus made up of several two-dimensional 3D-printed shapes sewn onto a traditional designed sole. [2]

Auxetic materials are materials that have a negative or effectively negative Poisson's ratio. Unlike many traditional materials, textile products made from this material have the property of expanding perpendicular to the axis applied by the tensile load.

Materials are also auxetic if a compressive load applied along the axis results in a reduction in the dimension of the material along an axis perpendicular to the axis along which the compressive load is applied. [3]

References:

1. https://www.designboom.com/design/auxetic-wear-tensile-3d-printed-shoe-tpu-wertel-oberfell-08-01-2022/
2. https://scienceatom.com/2022/08/a-design-company-has-created-a-3d-shoe-that-adapt-to-your-feet/
3. https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/3D-printed-shoes-future-foot

Cite this article:

Sri Vasagi K (2022), A New 3D Printed Shoe that Adapts to the Functional Design of the Foot, Anatechmaz, pp. 33