Meet IMPROSOCKS! Now you can 3D print a shoe on your socks.
In analyzing the shoe-sock relationship, we realized that socks are often hidden from view, hence we decided to expose the sock and fuse the entities into one. We developed an innovative method that makes it possible to use existing socks and turn them into everyday shoes. Using the advanced technology of 3D printing and scanning softwares, we allow the choice of a personal and unique design tailored to their foot shape and fashion inclination.

Design Team

The project was part of a Digital Fabrication course by Prof. Dov Ganchrow, in Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. All the prints on the socks were printed by Stratasys.

Personalized socks are a fun and creative way to make a fashion statement and showcase one's individuality. During the project we used Stratasys's special 'direct-to-textile' 3D print technology to print a unique and personalized sole design, of specific foot dimensions, directly onto a sock. Our design includes a sole that wraps around the top of the sock. We printed the sole on the bottom part of the sock, while the parts that appear on the upper part are also printed from the bottom outside of the sock. In order to print the lace-managing features, that will later wrap the foot, we created a frame outside the borders of the fabric that allowed for both printing directly on the fabric as well as "in the air" around it. We chose to use elastic laces to connect the upper parts, because it was important to us to create more support for the foot and to allow the unique look to also appear in the upper part, thus creating an Interesting hybrid between a sock and a shoe.

Currently, the elastic material used in the 3D printer, Agilis, is not strong enough for everyday wear but with the development of technology, this product will be available for future use. To prove the full concept, We created prototypes with FDM TPU 3D printing on several additional socks glueing it directly to the sock.