As Head of Application Strategy for Footwear and New Markets at Carbon, I’ve been fortunate to have directly engaged with some of the most exciting evolutions in additive manufacturing (AM) for consumer goods. Over the last eight years, I’ve worked across categories, from helping scale our saddle programs to partnering with global footwear brands on fully printed components and complete products.
What we’ve found along the way is that innovation in one category tends to breed innovation in others. For instance, two of our main areas of focus right now are bra cups and wheelchair seating, and our work in these areas naturally extends from what we’ve done in saddles. In wheelchair seating, the goal is to replace a traditional cushion with one that is more durable, more breathable, and better tailored to the end user. For someone who may be using a seat all day, how do we help reduce pressure points? And if they put more weight on one side than the other, how do we tune a lattice so that the structure reflects that?
In many ways, it’s a similar value proposition to the applications we’ve developed in saddles, helmets, and footwear. We’re applying the same core capabilities, just looking at them from a new angle within a different vertical. As companies better understand what’s possible, additional opportunities begin to emerge.
Footwear as a Proving Ground
In footwear specifically, we’ve seen a shift in recent years. As a company, we’ve reached a point where we can print entire products that are ready to be sold to consumers. That means we’re able to engage with brands through a much broader lens than in the past. Still, we spend a lot of time helping clients break down the barriers to using this technology and understand the speed at which it can operate.
Take a midsole, for example. A customer might want to evaluate different lattice structures, assemble them into a shoe, and see how it performs. We can print, test, gather feedback, and adjust quickly. If one area feels too soft or too stiff, we modify the design and print again. Historically, that process would have meant new molds and extended tooling timelines. Now, it can happen within a digital workflow that allows us to iterate much more quickly.
The larger goal is always the same. How do we get more tunable, more customized products to market that ultimately perform better? And how do we do that faster? That’s where serialization comes into play. Industrial 3D printing has long been used for testing and recalibration. What’s changing now is how we approach full-scale production.
A Digital-First Manufacturing Mindset
A question we often get asked is, “How does AM compare to traditional manufacturing pricing?” It’s a fair question. You can print almost anything once or twice. The challenge is designing it in a way that leverages what industrial 3D printing does well. If a part generates excessive waste or requires heavy support structures, it may not be the right use case.
At Carbon, we work closely with brands to hone in on the issue they’re trying to solve and then design in a way that’s optimized for the technology. When you adopt a digital-first mindset, you’re no longer operating within a tooling-based process. You can optimize how many parts come off a platform at one time. You can refine print orientation and collect and reuse material. You can evaluate how to reduce print time or increase throughput. That discipline is what allows customers to move beyond prototyping and into scale. As volume increases and material quantities grow, cost comes down. When you look at the full value equation, including tooling costs, time to market, and iteration speed, AM becomes far more competitive than many initially assume.
adidas is a great example. Their Climacool shoe, which is fully 3D-printed and produced in partnership with Carbon, retails for $140–$160, which is competitive with traditionally manufactured footwear. That doesn’t mean we’re at parity in every application. There are still cases where industrial 3D printing carries a premium. But examples like this demonstrate that high-volume additive production can now compete in mainstream retail markets.
Where Additive Truly Adds Value
One of the most interesting parts of our role in footwear has been watching brands expand their thinking. It started with midsoles. Now we’re printing sneakers that come off the printer and can be boxed for sale. On the other end of the spectrum, we’ve released a heel with Alexander Wang that combines a softer elastomer on the upper with a rigid component for the base. When we show brands what’s possible beyond a single lattice structure, the conversation opens up. There are hundreds of thousands of lattice configurations. We can add skins, digital textures, and logos. From both a performance and aesthetic standpoint, the design space has become incredibly large.
For us, product innovation is always about identifying where industrial 3D printing can add specific value. Each year, we step back and reassess our target segments. Some remain consistent. Others emerge as materials evolve and brands begin to recognize where additive’s unique strengths can address gaps in the market. It’s always a balance between what our platform can enable and what the industry actually needs.
The thing we most want people to understand about AM is that it isn’t confined to a handful of well-known use cases. What we’ve achieved so far represents only a fraction of what we can do as an industry. There are still endless commercially viable applications to refine and explore.
Kelley McCarroll-Gilbert is Head of Application Strategy, Footwear & New Markets, at Carbon. Carbon will exhibit at Booth #2044 at RAPID + TCT 2026. Carbon’s Chief Technology Officer, Jason Rolland, will speak in the Executive Perspectives Keynote Series on Wednesday, April 15.
