Additive manufacturing and custom shoes right from you: a story about how 3D printing

At some point, everyone has faced the frustration of finding the perfect pair of shoes, only to discover they didn’t have your size. Well, here’s some exciting news—thanks to Ultimaker 3D printers, fashion retailer Eram and the creative minds at design studio Unistudio are transforming that experience. They’re offering customers the incredible opportunity to design their own high heels and have them printed on-site, right in the store. This collaboration aims to explore how innovative 3D printing technology could revolutionize the shopping experience in shoe stores, giving customers a unique blend of personalization and convenience.

The Atelier 27 event is the result of the collaboration between Eram and Unistudio. Customers can use a special app in the store to customize the design of shoe heels. Big or small heel? choose Rows? No problem. Do you cover them with stars and cactus spots? Of course, it’s your style! Once your design is finished, the app turns it into an STL file ready for 3D printing. In less than an hour the external part of the heel is printed and then fixed to the sole of the shoe.

A unique challenge

As Unistudio co-founder Paul-Etienne Meligne says, “The most difficult part of the project was finding a 3D printer that could offer customers a high-quality product and experience with the simplest workflow.”

Since buyers have to wait for the shoes to be printed, the printing speed needs to be as fast as possible. For the fastest prints, Unistudio and Eram used an Ultimaker 2+ with a thickness of 0.6 mm, which requires only two layers to make the 1.2 mm thick plastic bead shell.

Printing reliability is also important, which is why they chose Ultimaker 3D printers that use PLA material to provide print quality you can always count on.

New experiences

“Every experience we offer is new and ‘invisible’, which gives us a competitive advantage,” summarizes Paul-Etienne. And the results? The idea attracted the attention of the French public with media coverage on radio, television and newspapers. They have had a lot of positive feedback from customers. “It’s a good idea to offer a new shopping experience with a 3D printer, there are so many possibilities,” said one shopper who customized his Atelier 27 shoes.

In the future Eram and Unistudio want to do more events and on a larger scale. Explore some of the other innovative ways 3D printing is used in product design.

Conclusion 💡

The collaboration between Eram, Unistudio, and Ultimaker serves as a compelling proof-of-concept for the future of fashion retail and personalized manufacturing. This initiative is far more than a marketing novelty; it represents a fundamental shift away from the traditional, centralized supply chain toward an agile, customer-centric production model. By leveraging in-store 3D printing, the process solves the perennial consumer frustration of stock limitations—specifically, finding the perfect style only to be thwarted by a lack of size availability.

The true significance lies in the confluence of personalization and convenience. Customers are granted the unprecedented opportunity to actively participate in the design process, choosing specific features for their high heels. This level of co-creation transforms the shopping experience, forging a stronger emotional connection between the consumer and the final product. Crucially, the ability to print the designed components on-site dramatically collapses the typical lead time associated with custom goods.

From a business perspective, the benefits are equally profound. On-demand manufacturing eliminates the financial burden and logistical complexity of holding vast, varied inventory. This shift results in a leaner operation with zero obsolete stock, minimizing waste and promoting a more sustainable retail model. Furthermore, the technology enables rapid adaptation to changing fashion trends; popular designs can be scaled instantly, and unpopular ones can be retired without incurring losses. The Eram/Unistudio project demonstrates that 3D printing is not just an industrial tool, but a powerful platform for redefining customer engagement and achieving a level of design flexibility and operational efficiency that traditional shoe manufacturing simply cannot match. This partnership sets a clear precedent for how physical retail can integrate digital production to thrive in the era of demanding, individualized consumer expectations.