After a few attempts at 3D printed shoes, I’ve finally developed something I actually really like wearing. They are clogs, and I’m not talking about the kind that jam up your nozzle. I like them so much that I’ve made 3D models of them available for anyone to order on 3DShoemaker.com. The key to these 3D printed clogs is the high degree of customization as well as the soft and foamy TPU I used that should print easily on just about any desktop 3D printer, whether at home or in a clinic. The orientation and support material approach I used is also helpful. I’ll get into all of this in this 3DShoemaker post.
The 3D printed clog model can be found via the Designs/3D Printed Shoes menu on 3DShoemaker.com. It’s a zero drop shoe body with a wide accommodative rocker toe and an integrated footbed for maximum comfort. I’ll be adding more designs with time, but for now there is just this one. On the product page, the first thing to choose is your shoe size. The default is in US men’s sizing, but other systems can be selected. If you don’t know your shoe size and width, you could always 3D print this device or head to a shoe store. Some stores such as Fleet Runner, Road Runner Sports, The Athlete’s Foot, and Red Wing Shoes now have Volumental 3D scanners that give other information too, like heel width and instep height, which can be input input into the fit customization section of the ordering form, among more advanced ones like toe box width. In addition to customizing the fit, you can also customize the footbed. Various arch heights can be selected, and there are more advanced things like depths and soon forefoot twists and met-pads. 3D printed shoe models can even be ordered to match up with shoe lasts and footbeds designed in the 3DShoemaker plugin for Rhino. I’ll get deeper into all this customization in other posts.
As far as what material to print with, the key is to use something flexible and resistive to abrasion, like TPU. But it needs to be soft, much softer than common 95a, as otherwise your shoes just end up feeling like hard pieces of plastic. But soft filament can be difficult to print with, as it is like asking your extruder gears to push a soggy noodle into a straw. The solution is to use foaming TPU, such as Colorfabb’s Varioshore. The filament starts off fairly hard, around shore hardness 92a, so that it can be pushed into the nozzle. And then it softens up as it foams on exiting the nozzle, potentially all the way down to 55a depending on nozzle temperature.
After wearing the foamed 3D printed shoe on one foot and another one made of common 95A TPU on the other foot for a while now, it has become clear to me just how essential this material change is for every aspect of the shoe. As you would expect, the softer clog deforms considerably more resulting in far less pressure points on the foot and far smoother feeling steps. And of course the softer material has better traction too, somewhere halfway between common TPU and actual rubber. But there are subtler things, like the matte rather than shiny appearance and a feel more like canvas or neoprene. And given the foamed material ends up being about a third lighter weight, a higher infill can be used, resulting in far more uniform properties. Even the sounds the foamed material makes is more similar to a conventional shoe. Foamed TPU is more like an intentional shoe material rather than repurposed plastic. Varioshore is even rated as skin safe, though it is still just plastic and not breathable enough to go barefoot. Though perhaps a more porous design could help with this.
As far as print settings, I started off with Colorfabb’s Varioshore profile for the X1C. There are a few settings that could be tweaked. The most influential setting for this filament is nozzle temperature. Colorfabb suggests anywhere from 200°C to 250°C with the latter achieving maximum foaming. I found that quality and integrity greatly degraded at higher temperatures though, so I stuck with the profile default of 230°C. If you do decide to try a higher temp, remember to also adjust the flow ratio so things don’t get overcrowded. A few other things I changed were seam position to ‘nearest’ and ‘avoid crossing walls’ in order to reduce stringing from travels, and infill to ‘15% gyroid’. As far as hardware, I used the smooth PEI Engineering plate and a 0.6 nozzle which require line width changes to 0.6mm, though I think a 0.4mm nozzle with 0.4mm line widths would be fine if not better.
The best orientation to print at is 45deg from horizontal. This allows for very large clog sizes within common print volumes. My Bambulab X1C can fit my US Men’s size 13EE clogs no problem. I’ve designed the tread pattern overhang to be less than 45deg everywhere except the forefoot. So you could in theory only use support material in the toe area. However, I’ve found foaming TPU sags more, and so it’s best to support the entire tread, or at least the non concave sections. This ends up leading to a lot of support material overall, and so a lot of waist. TPU is supposedly recyclable, but this isn’t convenient yet. So I came up with the idea of using what I call a support plate, which can be selected near the end of the ordering form. It’s just a discardable part that acts as a kind of raised base from which to begin building support material rather than from the print bed. Foaming TPU also adheres particularly well to itself, so unless you have a competent multi material printer that can do a different support material, then a large interface spacing is required, something around 0.7mm. The end result is a bit rough, but just on the sole which of course gets worn down anyway.
The biggest downside of Colorfabb’s Varioshore is the price which is around $50 per 700g. My size 13 clogs, including supports, take about 250g of filament per side, so about $35 for the pair. This is of course in addition to the 3D model price. But then the design can be reprinted for the intended wearer as many times as you like. So in the end, it costs far less than a pair of brand name shoes. But you definitely want to get the print right right the first time. For this reason, it might make sense to first print a mockup with with less expensive filament if you have some sitting around. Some 95A TPU would be ideal, but even some rigid PLA can give you some insight into what the fit will be like. For the mockup, I suggest only printing the body of the clog so as to save on filament. I might eventually provide a dedicated minimalized mockup model in the future to save more on filament. If the mockup ends up not fitting well, you can always order a different size at a discounted rate via the ‘Size/Fit Adjustment’ option above the size selection on the ordering form.
I’m extremely pleased with these 3D printed shoes. I can now confidently say that the average 3D printer user can 3D print a perfectly functional pair of shoes on a common desktop 3D printer in about a day and for a reasonable price. They may be just rudimentary clogs, but this is just a start, and they represent far more than that. This for sure a disruptive technology that will change the industry.
In future posts I’ll go into greater depth on the various details, like an extensive wear report and various customizations, for both these clogs and new 3D printed shoe designs I plan on making available. 2025 is going to be an interesting year in the world of 3D printed shoes. If you found this post helpful, please subscribe for future updates.
