Glide Soles & Craftcloud
Glide Soles shares a bit about how Craftcloud® played a part in their venture of 3D printed slip-on sole protectors.
Could you tell us a little about Glide Soles?
Glide Soles develops removable slip-on sole protectors that fit over sneakers, football boots and court shoes, helping protect original shoe outsoles from everyday wear while extending footwear life. Alongside our consumer products, we also design custom performance traction systems, such as bespoke snow traction devices developed for the FAT Ice Race, where the tread was designed to imprint the Porsche logo into the snow with every step. Our goal is to make performance footwear longer lasting by adapting footwear to withstand the terrain that causes the most wear, while capturing the culture and design passion behind Glide Soles.
How does 3D printing come into play to bring your project to life?
3D printing has been essential throughout development of our custom snow traction project for the FAT Ice Race, it allowed us to rapidly prototype dozens of custom outsole design iterations, ensuring the Porsche logo was reproduced accurately with every footstep. It also enabled us to test fit on the snow boots, optimize flexibility and traction, refine complex geometries before investing in production tooling, and manufacture limited-release parts. Without rapid additive manufacturing, developing products at this speed simply wouldn’t have been possible.
Which services did Craftcloud provide?
We used Craftcloud to source high-quality 3D printed parts from trusted manufacturing partners. During our custom snow traction outsole project for the FAT Ice Race, Craftcloud also enabled us to meet urgent production deadlines at a scale and speed we couldn’t achieve in-house, while maintaining consistent quality across every part.
Are there any benefits working with Craftcloud?
Craftcloud gave us access to a wide network of manufacturers with consistently high quality and reliability, allowing us to quickly source the most suitable manufacturing process for a key part of the assembly. This flexibility was invaluable for bespoke footwear engineering projects like our custom snow traction system for the FAT Ice Race.
