Footwear

Footwear is no longer just a functional product but has become something that represents a person. 3D printing has quickly gained immediate acceptance into footwear prototyping, and there is interest for high end production using 3D printers. For the more mainstream footwear, inkjet printed dye sublimation designs are fully intrenched into the market. Both waterborne technologies and UV curable technologies are having some success adhering to the synthetics such as polyesters, polyurethanes, nylons and other simlar products. There are many examples of acid inks onto cotton fabrics also being used in the footwear category. Footwear is expected to have more and more functional chemistry inkjet printed giving the products exciting new features of color or even higher performance.