3D Printing Advantages And Disadvantages

Next is 3D printing. 3D printing makes it easier for new brands to get into the shoe market. It reduces the initial startup costs by allowing the designer to make a 3D printed model of a sole with cheap materials rather than creating a sole with a shoe making machine. Typically it costs a thousand dollars to make one sole, and then all the other shoe sizes need to be created too, all before production has even started (Bailey, 2013). With 3D printing, a sole can be created at a low cost to ensure that it will be correct when it is produced. The model sole can also show potential weak spots in the shoe. A downside to 3D printing at this time is the limited materials that can be used. An upper cannot be made by 3D printing now; however, this …show more content…
Anyways, in the past five years, this segment has been growing very fast and very dramatically due to the increase in popularity of the new athleisure wear, which the athletic shoes have also become more in the way of fashionable choices for the women rather than just something women would wear to exercises as normal functional pieces (IBISWorld 3, 2016). Another segment that we saw some changes along the way was the men non-athletic shoes segment, in the past 5 years the revenue generated by this segment has been decreasing consecutively due to the rising of the athletic shoes which people have been adapting them to match with not just sport wears, but also regular outfits to go to other public places. Athletic shoes are more acceptable in the workplace than before as some of the workplace had become more casual and shifted toward more informal style, so in this situation two or three pairs of dress shoes for men might be just enough for them, but instead they might tend to purchase more athletic shoes than other kinds (IBISWorld 3,