Adidas unveils new shoe with a 3D printed sole and is planning to create high performance footwear with scale and speed through Digital Light Synthesis, with more than 100,000 pairs by end of 2018.

Futurecraft 4D is the world’s first high performance footwear featuring midsoles crafted with light and oxygen using Digital Light Synthesis, a technology pioneered by Silicon Valley startup Carbon. According to Adidas, the technology eliminated the necessity of traditional prototyping or moulding. This moves on from traditional 3D printing, allowing for a bigger manufacturing scale and sport performance quality.

Digital Light Synthesis uses digital light projection, oxygen-permeable optics, and programmable liquid resins to generate high-performance, durable polymeric products. Futurecraft 4D is adidas’s first application of the Digital Light Synthesis. Digital Light Synthesis allows adidas to precisely address the individual needs in movement, cushioning, stability, and comfort with one single component. Carbon’s programmable resin platform offers unparalleled performance with respect to material durability and elastomeric responsiveness.

This new form of 3D printing allows adidas designers, sports scientists and engineers to bring the most intricate designs into physical reality. While traditionally 3D printing is slow, with lower quality as well as colour and material restrictions, and is relatively clunky; the new technology overcomes these shortcomings.

Adidas launched their Futurecraft 3D Runner, the brand’s first 3D printed performance footwear in 2015. With Digital Light Synthesised footwear, the brand is prepared to scale the product for mass production.

300 of Futurecraft 4D will be released in April 2017 for friends and family, followed by more than 5000 pairs for retail in Fall/Winter 2017, and further scaling in the coming seasons.