Start-up company Zellerfeld, a 3D printing-as-a-service company specializing in footwear and working with cutting-edge designers, has now opened up its platform and service to anyone eager to slip their feet into a pair of custom 3D printed shoes or sell them.
Zellerfeld, which originally launched its shoe 3D printing platform in early 2023, acts as a 3D printing service for a cadre of influential shoe designers, including Heron Preston, KidSuper, Rains, and Kitty, by offering a farm of custom-built 3D printers running nearly non-stop. Shoes are printed on-demand customized to each wearer’s foot via a 3D scan taken at home with a smartphone. Zellerfeld doesn’t keep inventory, and customers can return their shoes to the company for recycling.
Disruptive is an overused word, but here it fits. The Zellerfeld platform has the bold goal of delivering a sweatshop-free, sustainable alternative to traditionally wasteful footwear manufacturing.
“After printing thousands of pairs for supporters … and the world’s best brands, we’ve soaked up every lesson to one day open our platform to everyone. Well, that day is coming now,” says Cornelius Schmitt, Zellerfeld CEO. The open platform launched yesterday, and now virtually anyone can upload their design and sell their own shoes within minutes on zellerfeld.com.
Of course, designing footwear is not as easy as it may look, so temper your enthusiasm to launch the next Air Jordans. Substantial computer-aided-design skill are required plus the Zellerfeld platform has design criteria. It can’t just print anything. To that end, though, as a company Zellerfeld positions itself as a champion of footwear and offers a wide range of design guidelines plus an active Discord community of designers for advice.
Here’s how it works.
You could just purchase any of the 3D designs Zellerfeld already has on display now buy purchasing a production slot. First, go to Zellerfeld.com and reserve a production slot in the manufacturing queue for your custom 3D printed shoes. Once you purchase a slot for $10, your slot is immediately added to the end of the production queue, where you can select a shoe design of your choice to be printed. The company does not disclose how long that queue is — weeks, years?
The $10 slot is deducted from the total price of the shoes you select and is non-refundable after purchase.
If you want to 3D print and offer your unique design, the company says best way to submit your own design is to join its community at Discord (discord.gg/zellerfeld) where they have a link to their model submission portal, hit the “submit model” tab in the left navi.
But before you do that, check out all of the Zellerfeld documentation on what type and design of shoe can be 3D printed on its platform. There are sole thickness guidelines, ankle hight guidelines, the 3D models must be watertight, and many more points to consider in the company’s documentation posted on its Discord page. There are also templates file to follow.
Once your shoe model is submitted, it will go through a printability check and be accepted or rejected. If rejected, you can correct your shoe errors and try again. Zellerfeld says it will give you feedback and “help you do everything needed to get it live and in production.”
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