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Zellerfeld: 3D-Printed Footwear

Zellerfeld

What is Zellerfeld?

Founded in 2015, Zellerfeld is a 3D-printing footwear manufacturer based in Hamburg, Germany. The company aims to usher in a new era of footwear. Ditching traditional shoe size runs and standard lasts (i.e. the general shape around which a shoe is built), every shoe is custom-fitted to the buyer’s unique foot shape, taken from a 3D foot scan.

The company also ditches traditional in-house designers. Every shoe available on the platform was designed by a third party.

Zellerfeld’s goal is to “democratize the footwear industry,” by allowing any brand (or even individual person) to sell designs on the platform. To learn about selling a pair of shoes on the ever-growing platform, click here.) Much like how YouTube took the cost of online video hosting upon itself and allowed creators to just focus on making videos, taking on the costs (and countless headaches) of footwear manufacturing empowers designers to just create interesting footwear.

While preparing this article, we reached out to Cornelius Schmitt, Zellerfeld’s CEO and cofounder. Cornelius kindly took plenty of time to answer Drew and I’s many questions. Throughout this article, I will include information Cornelius shared.

Zellerfeld Magma
Seth Fowler

How to Order Zellerfeld Shoes

As I’m sure you’ve gathered by now, Zellerfeld doesn’t do things by the traditional footwear manufacturer playbook. So, how the heck do you order a pair? Well, just follow these steps: 

  1. Buy a Production Slot: Costing $10, a production slot is your place in Zellerfeld’s 3-D printing queue.
  2. Scan Feet: After buying a production slot, Zellerfeld will give you a link to Volumental. Volumental is the phone app Zellerfeld uses to scan feet. Simply follow the in-app foot scanning steps. At the moment, the largest foot size Zellerfeld can print is a US Men’s 16. As long as you’re below that, you’re good. 
  3. Pick a Model: Once you’ve scanned your feet, you can pick out a model. Since new models are added all the time, Zellerfeld allows you to change your model at any time and however many times you want leading up to the next step.
  4. Get Printed: Seven days before your production slot is set to print, Zellerfeld will send you an email letting you know. This is when you lock in the model you want. If, for whatever reason, you do not confirm your model by the end of the 7 days, the company will push your production slot back by 500 places in the queue. Each time a production slot is pushed back, the number of places is increased by 500 (so, 500 for the first, 1000 for the second, 1500 for the third, and so on).

[Editor’s Note: Zellerfeld is an ever-changing platform. These are the current steps to order a pair. However, Zellerfeld could update what the ordering process looks like in the future.]

Zellerfeld Beluga
Eliot Page

Zellerfeld Platform and Ordering Process Review

I haven’t gotten any shoes from Zellerfeld yet. However, since this is such a different shoe company, I would like to give some pros and cons of my experience as a normal customer so far, as well as of their platform in general.

Nike Air Max 1000 by Zellerfeld side view
Seth Fowler

Pros

  • Fully Custom Fitted Footwear. As a sneakerhead with wide boats for feet, the prospect of a pair of shoes built specifically for my feet is very exciting. I’ve always had a hard time finding the right fit in my footwear. It’s often a battle between length and width. Knowing the pair I order from Zellerfeld will be custom fitted to my feet is, again, very exciting.

Also, since people like different types of shoes to fit differently, Zellerfeld is hoping to create different digital lasts for the same person in the future. Say you like your slides to feel a bit looser than your sneakers, Zellerfeld could give you a “slide last” with slight fit differences from your “sneaker last,” in order to accommodate your personal fit preferences. How cool is that!?!? [Editor’s Note: Futuristic and cool.]

  • Ability To Change Models: As stated before, new models are getting added to Zellerfeld all the time. And considering the long wait times from ordering to printing (more on this later), the ability to change models an unlimited amount of times feels necessary for this company. I have changed my model a number of times already, for example, and I’ll likely do so a lot more before my production slot is finally set to print.
  • Green Footwear: Since all of Zellerfeld’s footwear is 100% 3-D printed, there are little to no waste byproducts from manufacturing. There are also no supply chains, as all manufacturing is done completely in-house, using custom-built 3-D printers. And since the shoes are made from the same material all in a single print job, there’s no need for glues to hold materials together. Even though Zellerfeld’s current 3D printing material (called ZellerFoam) is not biodegradable, it hopes to develop a biodegradable 3D printing material at some point.
  • Easy-On Footwear (hopefully): I have Cerebral Palsy, a physical disability. I’m always on the lookout for footwear I can get on by myself. According to Cornelius, Zellerfeld’s openings are wide and stretchy. He showed us how wide most models’ openings can get. They seem to be stretchy enough for me to get on by myself. Also, Cornelius is proud to manufacture 100% lace-free footwear. Once I receive my pairs from Zellerfeld, I’ll be able to confirm first-hand if the shoes are easy-on.
Nike Air Max 1000 by Zellerfeld heel view
Seth Fowler

Cons

  • Issues With Foot Scanning: As stated before, the way Zellerfeld makes custom fitted shoes is by using the foot scanning app Volumental. When I scanned my feet, Volumental required me to have my feet in an awkward position and take a picture. My feet had to be in an “L” shape. With my Cerebral Palsy, this position was very hard to make and even harder to hold. Also, the pictures themselves needed to be taken from a specific angle and distance, otherwise Volumental’s software won’t accept them.

Something worth noting here is if you scan your feet with socks on, socks compress the shape of your feet. This impacts Volumental’s scanning, making your feet appear (a bit) smaller. For best results, scan without socks.

  • Long Wait Times: I bought my first production slot on July 16th, 2024. At that time, my production slot was not expected to print until May 2025, nine months after buying it. Surprisingly, on October 22, 2024, I got the confirmation email informing me that my production slot was ready to print.

Something worth noting is that right now Zellerfeld is working with around 200 3D printers. That means they can only print around 200 shoes (not pairs, but individual shoes) at one time. If the company can move into a bigger factory, with room for more 3D printers, wait times should (theoretically) be shorter.

  • High Price Tags: At of the time of this writing, the least expensive shoes on the platform are both priced at $159. They are the Beluga (designed by ex-Yeezy designer Chris De Roy), which is a simple slide, and the Mantis Ballerina (designed by Jonathan Pohl Hannemann), which is a minimalist ballet-style flat. Nearly $160 for a slide or a casual flat is likely too high for a lot of people, even if they are custom fitted. Most of the shoes currently available on Zellerfeld are priced between $229 and $249.

It should be noted that the prices are decided by the designers, not Zellerfeld. However, I assume there’s a minimum price at which designers can sell their footwear. Additionally, I have seen prices of a few models change.

For example, the Yoku (designed by Jacob Cosquer) was priced at $279 when it was first introduced on the platform. Now, the same shoe is priced at $229. Since there’s no way to tell that the model you’re ordering could change prices, the company should offer some money back in this sort of case (though we aren’t sure if they do).

Nike Air Max 1000 by Zellerfeld outsole view
Seth Fowler

Zellerfeld’s Future

Since first selling shoes in 2022, Zellerfeld has come a long way. The current catalog has over 60 designs for sale and allows many small designers to see their footwear design become reality. And the platform is still evolving. This is by no means the end of the story.

During our conversation with Cornelius, he gave us some insights into the future. Something that should get a lot of you excited is that the company is hoping to print some more performance driven footwear. A prototype they showed us had some basic lockdown, in the form of finger-like structures reaching from the midsole to the upper. Traditionally, custom-fitted performance shoes are only available for world class professional athletes, but this has the potential to be available to everyone.

The company is still, no doubt, a long way off from printing, say, performance basketball and running shoes; however, I think its technology could be used to print something like hiking footwear sooner rather than later. Another thing Cornelius told us is that Zellerfeld has a good number of high-profile collaborations coming in the near future. And true to his word, on November 14th, 2024, one of these high-profile collaborations was unveiled: the Nike Air Max 1000. It’s a 3D printed Zellerfeld shoe with a Nike Air unit in the midsole.

The Air Max 1000 acted as more of a proof of concept (and publicity instrument) for Nike so they could test the waters of fully 3D printed footwear. It was only made available at that weekend’s ComplexCon. Only time will take what other collaborations Zellerfeld has in the works. 

Zellerfeld’s ultimate goal is to have everyone wearing 3D-printed footwear. While I don’t think traditionally made footwear will ever go away anytime soon, I do think, if Zellerfeld keeps its upward trajectory, the company will become a major player in the high end footwear industry.

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