Footwear Design. The paradox of "tailored shoe" in the contemporary digital manufacturing systems

Abstract

This paper aims to describe the scenario of the contemporary footwear sector, giving a perspective to the product design methodological approaches in the context of the so called 4.0 Industry standards. To do this the text proposes the description of practical experimentations carried out focusing on cad-cam design and cnc production methods. The digital design and manufacturing processes (from the 3d scanning of the foot to the shoe last definition, from the style concept to the virtual parametric prototype of the shoes, from the definition of all the components to the final production) address from the one hand the advanced production methods supported by the enabling technology, from the other hand the renew of the traditional hand made production for the small and custom made series. Tradition and innovation aims to enable new cultural approaches to the made in Italy standards and new competitiveness keys for the footwear industry.

Reacting to the COVID-19 pandemic through digital connectivity with customers: the Italian experience

“…This wide set of technologies has promised to radically transform manufacturing activities (Alcácer & Cruz-Machado, 2019 ), but also marketing processes. Through advanced and connected automation or additive manufacturing (i.e., 3D printing) firms may increase opportunities for product customization in a mass customization paradigm, up to tailored solutions for customers (Di Roma, 2017 ; Liao et al, 2017 ). More specifically, the Industry 4.0 technologies are connected to data management and predictive analytics (Tao et al, 2018 ) that represent one of the most relevant areas for marketing (Erevelles et al, 2016 ).…”

Análise bibliométrica da produção científica da indústria 4.0 e sua relação com a indústria calçadista

“…Essas novas tecnologias empregadas podem revolucionar o modo de produção com emprego de ferramentas como: análise de big data, CPS -Cyber Physical System, IoT -Internet of Things, impressão e scanner 3d, dentre outras. A indústria calçadista atua em um ambiente muito competitivo, e muitas dessas ferramentas podem promover o aumento dessa competitividade proporcionada pela redução de custos de produção, redução de mão-de-obra, redução no tempo de produção entre outros como ressaltam trabalhos recentes sobre o tema (Bai et al, 2020;Chang, 2020;Di Roma, 2017;Garzoni et al, 2020;Janson et al, 2019).…”

3D-Printed shoe last for bespoke shoe manufacturing

“…The development of reverse engineering technology (3D scanning) has allowed the market to move towards solutions where the feet of customers are scanned and the last is designed based on geometry generated from the resulting point cloud [2][3][4]. This provides the advantage of being able to fit the shoe last precisely to the actual measured shape of customer's foot instead of relying on standardized sizing, in exchange for increased cost due to the required scanning equipment as well the qualified personnel needed to process resulting data and create last 3D CAD models from cloud points [5].…”