CONSUMER PRODUCTS
REINVENTING CASUAL WORDS: SAM DAVIES
O
wed to its origins in serving the US military, its claims of ‘inventing casual’ back in the 1950s and its ability to attract the custom of David Bowie, Tom Hanks and Sharon Stone, durability, comfort and style have always been the focus for Hush Puppies. And despite the global footwear brand’s VP/GM Kate Pinkham recently hinting at a fresh approach to ‘reinvent casual’ over the coming decades, those requirements remain top of mind for the company. Pinkham made the remark about reinventing casual when commenting on the company’s excitement to collaborate with Voxel8, the Massachusetts-based 3D printing firm recently acquired by Kornit Digital, whose high-speed industrial inkjet technology is used to develop products in the apparel and textiles industries.
By the time Voxel8 was acquired by Kornit Digital, its work with Hush Puppies was already well underway. As with other partnerships between footwear brands and 3D printing providers, the Hush Puppies collaboration is exploiting Voxel8’s ability to print lattice structures.
“3D printing is rapidly evolving as a viable footwear technology,” Louk Schulten, Product Development Director at Hush Puppies, told TCT. “Voxel8 developed, patented and owns the printer-heads that make it possible to print our 3D lattice. It is unique to them and now to Hush Puppies to be able to create and produce these lattices. No other company in the world can produce these.”
FINE TUNING In particular, the focus is on midsole inserts, with the lattices being ‘precisely tuned’ to ensure enhanced shock absorption. Using Voxel8-printed latticed midsole inserts, there is no deviation in shock absorption and four times less thickness change after 100,000 cycles when compared to traditional foams. This means that Hush Puppies shoes fitted with these 3D printed midsole inserts can match the comfort of existing footwear products with a significant increase in longevity. “For a consumer, when they buy a pair of Hush Puppies, they would like to make sure that the comfort they feel on day one is the comfort they feel a year later,” Friedrich von Gottberg, VP Additive Manufacturing Textiles at Kornit Digital (formerly Voxel8
CEO), said. “And the problem with traditional foams is they essentially collapse and bottom out over a period of time. So, they may feel comfortable in the store, but give yourself a few months, they don’t feel so comfortable.” “The Voxel8 lattice provides a cushioning platform with an infinite number of options to customise underfoot cushioning and rebound/ energy return that Air, Gel and Boost [other footwear cushioning types] cannot provide,” explained Pete Dillon, Senior Product Developer at Hush Puppies. Voxel8’s approach to addressing these issues has been to take advantage of the latticing capabilities and materials portfolio of its ActiveLab 3D printing offering. The company’s technology leans on the ActiveMix printhead which enables ‘on the fly formulation of high-performance elastomers’, whereby the material properties of the printed structures can be changed by ‘multiple orders of magnitude.’ ActiveMix supports both extrusion and spray deposition and is capable of controlling the precision dosing of elastomeric raw materials to generate the aforementioned material property changes across a single print with one material set.
“Sustainability goes hand in hand with customisation and personalisation.”
SHOWN: FOOTWEAR PRODUCT DEVELOPED WITH VOXEL8 TECHNOLOGY
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