Adidas Carbon futurecraft strung
The Futurecraft 4D STRUNG shoe with 3D printed midsoles enabled by Carbon DLS technology.
Sportswear brand Adidas has unveiled its latest Futurecraft running shoe equipped with the 'most radical' additively manufactured midsoles enabled by Carbon to date.
The two companies have been close collaborators for five years, harnessing Carbon’s Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) 3D printing technology to generate latticed midsoles that can support performance athletes. Adidas first debuted the 3D Runner in 2016, before the introduction of the Futurecraft 4D model in 2017 and iterations like the AlphaEDGE 4D LTD following in 2018. Though 12 months ago there were closures of Speedfactory facilities, the alliance between the two firms has remained and Adidas has now launched the Futurecraft STRUNG concept.
Adidas has developed the STRUNG shoe with a combination of athlete data, additive manufacturing and robotics, generating a lightweight piece of footwear that has been data-mapped for a seamless fit. It is designed for high-performance runners capable of reaching speeds of 5m/second with every millimetre of the shoe said to be ‘precisely tuned to support movement and performance’ during fast runs. In the development of the shoe, Adidas used two athletes in short-distance training who provided both ‘motion capture and ongoing feedback’. As a result, the upper part of the shoe has been designed to have a ‘lightweight and cocooned feel and fit’, with stronger threads located in the mid-foot, toe-box, heel and forefoot for flexibility.
Carbon adidas Strung futurecraft
Once again, Carbon’s DLS 3D printing technology and specialised material from its EPU family were leveraged to enable a latticed midsole with energy return properties. Adidas believe the midsole they have designed and manufactured this time around is the most advanced yet.
An Adidas blog on the development of STRUNG read: “As a business, we are constantly striving for optimum footwear performance. To achieve this, we need to get the most out of our materials. We like to talk about our products ‘silently serving’ the athlete – seamlessly improving performance and in this case getting more out of every thread so that they can focus on nothing but their sport.
“The midsole is our most radical ADIDAS 4D lattice design to date, featuring a new shape to cater for forefoot strikers. The heel has been minimised to remove the weight and the rubber outsole is specifically engineered to provide traction just where needed, resulting in an extremely minimalist midsole.”
Adidas has said the Futurecraft STRUNG shoe will not be made commercially available, but has a targeted launch date for late 2021/ early 2022 with development to continue over the next year.
