Theo Wargo
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A couple of weeks ago, Kanye West appeared on his wife's reality show, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, during a visit to Armenia's Tumo Centre for Creative Technologies. During the episode, he expressed an anxiety that 3D printing would disrupt the fashion industry: "This is what I'm afraid of...Because the internet destroyed the music industry and now, this is what we're afraid of right now with the textile industry...There will come a time when people are making their shoes at home."
West's premonition was widely mocked; dozens of headlines sunk their teeth into the idea that "KANYE WEST IS SCARED OF 3D PRINTERS." While we don't agree with the analogous assertion that music ruined the internet, there might be more than just tabloid fodder behind Kanye's comments. Yesterday, Adidas released the first images of a Futurecraft 3D prototype: a running shoe with a customizable, 3D-printed midsole. In a press statement, Adidas expressed its intentions to take this concept from prototype to reality: "Imagine walking into an Adidas store, running briefly on a treadmill and instantly getting a 3D-printed running shoe. This is the ambition of the Adidas 3D-printed midsole." Welcome to the future.
