Why Did PEAK And Lining Come Into The Game One After Another? Why Do Domestic Sports Brands Favor 3D Printing Technology?

Recently, 3D printing technology has become a new technology that domestic sports brands try to try. It is reported that recently the sports brand PEAK joint Wanhua chemical group Limited by Share Ltd (Wanhua Chemistry) presented a brand new 3D print sports shoes "TheNext" at the 2019 Dusseldorf International Plastics and Rubber Exhibition. In addition, Anta and Lining also had strong interest in 3D printing technology. Industry experts believe that 3D printing technology can improve the production efficiency of enterprises, and the future customization will become the biggest selling point of 3D printing sports shoes.

Domestic brands are keen on 3D printing technology

It is reported that PEAK's joint 3D shoe printing shoe, which is jointly launched by Wanhua chemical company, is called WANFABTPU, which does not contain plasticizers. It has multiple environmental certification of authoritative agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It can achieve 100% recycling and recycling. When sports shoes are worn out, consumers can choose to recycle them, and turn them into retailers to decompose them, so as to achieve 100% recycling of sports shoes materials. The completion of the second round of customized 3D printing can not only bring about circular economic effects, but also achieve "zero harm" to the environment.

Hua Wei Qi, executive vice president and technical director of Wanhua chemical, said at the press conference that through cooperation with 3D printing equipment suppliers and service providers, Wanhua chemical debugged thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer rubber, and adopted process fusion deposition manufacturing (FDM) technology and selective light melting (SLS) technology to support high quality 3D printing vamp and mid sole manufacturing.

Not only PEAK, but Lining also has great interest in 3D printing technology. In June last year, Lining launched the 3D print sports shoes when he boarded the fashion week in Paris. Lining named the shoe "reburning". Its vamp is made of transparent material and equipped with a bionic honeycomb like sole, and this kind of honeycomb like midsole adopts 3D printing technology.

It is understood that the bionic honeycomb like midsole can guarantee the resilience and comfort of sports shoes, and can also be customized according to the different sports types and the different types of shoes.

Lining related staff told reporters that Lining's customization technology is mainly divided into three steps. First, we need to scan the foot of the consumer for three dimensional scanning to get the basic data of the foot shape; secondly, we can collect the dynamic distribution of plantar pressure through the plantar pressure testing equipment. Finally, we take foot type, weight and plantar pressure as the parameters, and use the modeling technology to get the 3D printing sole structure.

In addition, Anta is also very keen on 3D printing technology. In March last year, Anta officially announced the introduction of Lian Tai 3D printing shoe mold equipment. Although Anta has not yet officially released the finished product of 3D printing shoes, a person close to Anta told the China Daily News that Anta attaches great importance to 3D printing technology, and is currently designing and developing products.

3D printing technology helps shoe industry reform

Why are domestic sports brands optimistic about 3D printing technology? 3D printing technology professionals Zhou Gang told the China Commercial Daily reporter that manufacturing efficiency is the most important factor, while 3D printing technology can effectively improve the production efficiency of enterprises. In fact, as early as April 2012, the economist in England published an article entitled "the third industrial revolution". The article believed that 3D printing technology would promote the third industrial revolution with other digital production modes, calling it the trend of the manufacturing industry in the future.

According to Zhou Gang, in the traditional shoemaking enterprises, the brand manufacturers need to provide the production schematic diagram and the metal mold of the sole before converting the design inspiration into the real object. The process takes about a month. The samples produced will usually undergo several modifications, and each modification will produce a new sample. The final version of a pair of shoes will take about a year to determine and then put into production.

3D printing technology has a very significant advantage in the design process. It can directly use the software to input the stylist of the designer into the printing equipment and get physical objects quickly. The whole process takes only a few hours, greatly accelerating the speed of product innovation and effectively improving the production efficiency of enterprises.

SmarTechAnalysis, an industry analyst, published a report entitled "additional manufacturing in the footwear industry" in April this year. The report predicts that by 2023, 3D printing shoe parts, including extra built insoles, midsole and upper, will generate more than $1 billion in revenue.

Zhou Gang believes that in recent years, domestic labor costs have increased year by year, 3D printing technology will bring great changes to the sports shoes manufacturing industry, and will also play a decisive role in industrial upgrading.

Personalization will be the biggest selling point

Liu Liang, a clothing industry expert, told reporters that 3D printing technology will become a major trend in the future. Because the future development direction of traditional sports shoes and clothing manufacturers is customization of products. At present, only 3D printing technology can do this quickly.

Cui Yaguang, director of PEAK design and research and development center in Beijing, said in an interview that in the past, "people look for shoes", and all the sports shoes worn by consumers were produced in factories. They came from a unified model and unified materials, and consumers could only choose the size of the size. With the advent of 3D printing technology, consumers can really "find shoes".

Cui Yaguang admitted that in the past, even if the shoes were customized according to the athlete's feet, the shoes produced by the factories still could not fully satisfy the sports needs of the athletes due to the traditional production process. They often spent hundreds of dollars to customize their own insoles. The biggest advantage of 3D printing technology now is that it can achieve full customization, and can customize products for anyone.

Liu Liang told reporters that 3D printing sports shoes can make consumers feel the process of data acquisition and production completion, and increase the consumer's consumption experience.

Although 3D printing technology has great room for development, according to the China Commercial Daily reporter, limited by printing materials and technical factors, the cost of 3D printing sports shoes is more expensive at present. The better the print, the higher the quality, the higher the price of equipment and materials.

Liu Liang thinks, because the cost is high, the 3D print sports shoes that can produce at present can be relatively few, which is also the reason why there are not many 3D printed sports shoes on the market. However, he believes that the domestic sports brand is optimistic about 3D printing technology. In the future, it will strengthen the R & D strength and develop 3D printing sports shoes with higher cost performance.