Impact Footwear Brings to Market Customizable Flip Flops in Under 12 Months
Customer Company Size
Startup
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- nTop Platform
- nTopCL
Tech Stack
- Cloud Computing
- Additive Manufacturing
- Generative Design
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Productivity Improvements
- Innovation Output
Technology Category
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms
- Analytics & Modeling - Generative AI
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing
Applicable Industries
- Consumer Goods
- Retail
Applicable Functions
- Product Research & Development
- Business Operation
Use Cases
- Mass Customization
- Rapid Prototyping
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
Impact Footwear is a startup that has developed the first customizable flip flop sandal with three different pressure zones, manufactured on-demand using SLS 3D printing. Founded by Craig DeMerit, the company focuses on creating customizable footwear that is easy for consumers to personalize. DeMerit, who has a deep knowledge of the retail market but no experience in CAD or mechanical design, managed to bring the product to market within twelve months. The company aims to make mass customization economically viable by automating design and order processes and leveraging advanced manufacturing technologies.
The Challenge
Impact Footwear aimed to create customizable flip flop sandals that could be easily personalized by consumers and manufactured on-demand with minimal human intervention. The challenge was to develop a mass customization business model that could scale economically while keeping operational costs low. This required fully automating the design generation and order placement processes, developing foam-like lattice structures to mimic traditional footwear materials, and leveraging additive manufacturing to minimize inventory and stay flexible in product development.
The Solution
Impact Footwear developed a fully automated and scalable design generation and order placement system that runs on the cloud. The system is hands-free, from receiving the order to generating the new design and sending it to the manufacturer for on-demand production. The design automation capabilities of nTopCL, an advanced geometry computation microservice, are at the heart of this system. This allows for the generation of production-ready STL files in less than 10 minutes, which is nine times faster than competing solutions. Additionally, the company developed foam-like lattice structures that mimic traditional footwear materials, enabling unique customization options such as different stiffness levels for various zones of the sandal.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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