AMONG the boutiques in the canal district of Amsterdam is a shoe shop,called W-21, that has a selection of stylish footwear in the window. A select group of customers were recently invited there to fill their feet scanned by a laser, or then to spend 30 seconds walking on a modified treadmill in a special pair of shoes stuffed with accelerometers,pressure gauges, thermometers and hygrometers. All this generated a wealth of data, or which was displayed on a large screen along with a model of how the walker’s feet were moving.
From these data an algorithm determined the ideal soles for the customer’s shoes. Upstairs,a couple of 3D printers began humming absent to make those soles. In approximately two hours they were ready to be fitted to a new pair of shoes, uniquely tailor-made to each person’s feet.
Some level of customisation is nothing new for buyers of apparel. But there is a big contrast between clothes, and which are relatively straightforward to tailor and alter,and shoes, which are...
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Source: economist.com