As you know, I started designing custom 3D-printed shoes for myself. This is a follow-up.
So, I spent some time modeling a basic, thin-walled shoe. Nothing fancy, just a quick something to test the fit and do my first TPU print - although I’ll probably start with test pieces before printing this doozie.
One shoe fits on the bed of our Prusa Mk4 - barely.
It’s a 17-hour print. Yikes! I think I’ll probably do this over the next week-end, otherwise my colleagues will kill me.
The support is mostly inside the toe box and promises to be a real b*tch to remove:
The shoe is very close-fitting, but I’ve left 2mm all around inside: if I mess up, or if the TPU shrinks like I think it will, it has a chance to remain wearable. If it doesn’t, I’ll simply put a sock on.
Stay tuned 🙂
There’s always that guy that says this, but doesn’t look like he’s said it yet, so I’ll be the guy. Even with Tpu, the layered print nature of this will make a microchannel rich environment that is pro-microbe and with or without venting and with or without socks, this is a setup for some stinky feet.
Not to mention it’ll shed micro plastics constantly
Probably at about the same rate as normal sneakers, so if you can live with that then these shouldn’t be an issue in that regard
All valid concerns, thank you for raising them: this hadn’t crossed my mind.
But I’m not too concerned for the following reasons:
My current pair of pool shoes are commercial models I thermo-reformed with hot air (if you’re interested in that process, I can post a video if you’d like). Pool shoes are made of vinyl: let me tell you, reforming vinyl at close to decomposing temperature is a nasty toxic fumes affair. Whatever drawbacks TPU may have can’t be any worse for my health.
They’ll be used mostly underwater in chlorinated water for a couple of hours per week tops.
My feet don’t sweat much anymore.