Looking Outwards 03: Under Armour

Instantly when prompted with the idea of generative design, I thought of Autodesk and the work they did with Under Armour to create the Architech shoe. With today’s tech and designer’s love of sneakers, it was inevitable that a mass market 3D printed shoe was going to hit the market.

The shoe sole is designed with the wearer in mind and provides a rather sensitive approach to footwear. When they developed the shoes, they weren’t just trying to showcase the tech, but also took into account the user experience of it all.

They began in Fusion360 and generated the structures, they used Autodesk’s Myriad program to create the pattern of cells. The advantage of using Myriad was that they were able to test out many variations of spacing and design till they arrived at their final result.

I like reading about tech and the role it playsinto product design because alot of conceptual artwork exists with tech, but taking the concepts and finding a practical application can change so many things in industry.