The first printed shoes were 2 smaller trials printed with TPU 90A, and the final pairs are both asymmetric and very different from each other. Both pairs use a 3D scanned plaster cast of my right foot, which is eventually turned into a shoe last.

The right pair is a tabi-style shoe. With different-sized half spheres covering the object, which almost resembles the skin of a toad. The tip of the shoe is larger than that of Crocs - from my perspective,Shoe Prototype Series Nr. 1, from Personal Archive, in 2026 potentially a recipe for achieving the ugliest shoe ever made. Underneath the shoe is a footstep-like sole, and the polygons of the digital model are visible when viewed closely. The right shoe is slightly too small. I remember wearing it at a festival and walking around, but it was too small, so I couldn't wear it for long.

The left pair is a refined and simplified version. The shoe is adjusted to have a longer sole, so it fits much better, and the polygons are much less visible in this variation, thanks to modifiers applied in Blender. The shoe is almost as large and as stiff as the right pair, and its design invites the wearer to go on tiptoe, making the gesture a bit easier.

First Prototpes

Second Prototype

The model is a continuation toward a more visually refined and comfortable variant. The pair is much softer than the first shoe, using a thinner infill distribution and fewer wall loops. The model is very chunky; it has some structural improvements and fewer visual expressions than the previous model. However, still a statement to wear in public. The pair has a more distinct curvature at the mid-soul. The previous model caused pain in that area when worn for over an hour.

There were still major structural errors in this pair. Firstly, the front of the shoe is completely flat, which made the shoe pop off my foot with each step. This was a way to observe and note important aspects of a shoe's anatomy. I had to realize many things that cause a shoe to disappear from the wearer’s foot. Small details reveal a fuller picture of the important nuances in everyday items we forget we are wearing.

The shoe was too soft; the shoe sole was again inspired by the shape of my foot, withimprovements, and there were under-extrusion defects. Due to an inaccurate printing setup that had a high-friction spool roller. However, the model was just good enough to take for a spin in Old Town.

First, I had to melt the very tip of the shoe to give it some curvature. Which was effective enough to keep the shoes on my feet. I went to the academy and back with the pair on, and the TPU was cracking and tearing in places. There was a clear room for improvement, and the exploration had to continue.

Prototype Number 3

Throughout the process, I've been trying to keep the prototyping quite rapid, and along with the previous model, this pair was printed during summer break. The model includes quick fixes. Such as the curved tip and denser infill ratio. The design was almost ready when the previous pair was completed. However, there have been several failed attempts to get both pairs off the printer. During the first attempt, two shoes for the right foot. I've cut one of them in half and printed the left shoe; however, the infill and wall loop ratio was different in each pair, making one a bit softer than the other. The harder shoe is the right pair. Which is a hustle to put on, and it reminds me of wooden clogs. The stiffer structure makes orthopedic defects more obvious. Such as which fingers touched the tip of the shoe, whether the shoe hits on the back of the ankle, etc. The left pair, on the other hand, was easier to put on and, in theory, more comfortable; however, it had print defects that made it outright dangerous to wear for even a short walk to the grocery store (which I did). At the time, I didn't exactly know how to print with TPU properly. I've been making makeshift 3-D-printed reclaimed dry boxes, which usually result in under-extrusion due to excessive friction or filament that's too humid to print with. In this pair of shoes, something much more bizarre was going on. There were errors with stringing, never any inconsistent layer lines, and, worst of all, all the support material was fully integrated into the shoe. I have been adjusting the slicer setup by changing the temperature and flow rate, as well as the inner-chamber temperature. I have had several failed attempts to print the left pair, and it's been a nightmare. After some time and printing several other items with similar issues, I realized I've been using a 6 mm-diameter nozzle for a 4 mm nozzle setup. Perhaps rapidity itself should definitely be paired with a pause and a deep breath, at least. All in all, I learned several things during the process of creating this prototype: print setup, what to look for in TPU printing, the effects of rigidity on footwear, and the importance of a well-focused mental state when creating new things.

4th Prototype

The pair was created for the first review of the second semester. There are several major improvements to the design and manufacturing method. First and foremost, the shoe features a more detailed, visual appearance, with an external texture embedded in the design to increase friction while walking. These textures are created in a virtual reality headset, and each sphere is exactly the same size and placed one by one to achieve a visual representation that embraces imperfection and promotes a handmade feel.

The shoe is printed on a dual-nozzle 3D printer. Which uses PETG for the support material and TPU for the whole shoe. The TPU is fed directly to the hot-end without PTFE tubing, from a 3D-printed dry box with silica gel and a spool roller with two ball bearings, eliminating all friction. However, there had been print defects, including unde extrusion and poor layer adhesion, as well as some bubbling on the front of the shoe.

There had been several adjustments to the slicer setup, switching from a rectangular infill pattern to a gyroid pattern. The shoe has three wall loops and 25% infill density. Which is way too soft to wear.

All in all, the major problem with this prototype is that the shoe is so out of balance that you can touch it and it will rock around left or right for a good three seconds. Combined with the print defect, the pair is a total mess. Massive deformations while walking, nothing about it is rigid enough, and it's a split sole shoe, which is absolutely a candy-coated disgrace, nothing but a prompt.

5th Prototype

This is the first shoe to use a foot scan for sizing and minor adjustments while sticking to the anatomy of a basic universal shoe last. The shoe lasts in GravitySketch are leveled with the floor plane.

While creating the shoe, it's possible to move the shoe last towards the horizon to determine how high the platforms should be and to have some control over the shoe’s front and back curvatures. And this enables a direct method for creating completely balanced shoes. The designers must ensure the digital shoe last is aligned and select an accurate last from the available options. For example, the designer may be creating a high-heeled shoe and must select the appropriate last and size it properly. In this shoe, along with all the earlier shoes, I've set the goal of giving the toes some wiggle room, almost like Crocs or barefoot shoes. So, I've selected Zellerfeld’s “more basic shoe last” and adjusted the front to create more space, not to squeeze the toes.

The design is more modern than avant-garde. With subtle expressions that blend well in public environments. An anatomy that signals calm, comfortable, and casual, and in the meantime, it still looks rare. The pair has a very specific 3D printed shoe shine. When worn in the sun, the pair stands out as 3D printed and attracts curiosity. I have been wearing these shoes because they're very easy to put on and take off, even though they're entirely made of sealed plastic; there’s enough space in the shoe to let air in from the sides, and I didn't sweat much while wearing them. However, I trashed them quite fast. Especially on the parts where the slicer setup was optimized for flexibility.

The shoe was printed using PETG as the sport material and TPU 90A for the body. It was the first model to have a modifier embedded in the design, with two different slicer setups on one shoe. For the shoe sole, I used 60% Gyroid infill and four wall loops; for the shoe upper, the slicer was set to three wall loops and 15% Gyroid infill. The difference between the wall loops on the upper and the shoe sole resulted in a visible line that crosses the shoe, marking the separation between those two values. In the meantime, there had been a minor printing defect with the printer. Poor layer adhesion on the first layers. Which was the tip of the shoe, and because of that, the shoe let some water into the upper due to its very thin walls. As I kept wearing it, there was major wear and tear in the areas with fewer wall loops. Essentially, the shoe has degraded to the point that it's no longer pleasant to wear after 1.5 months of active use.

“OH, Billy!” A hand made Clogs out of old Sneakers

This pair was created at the Estonian Academy of Arts in a workshop called “Sneaker To Clog.” During the workshop, attendants were tasked with using parts of sneakers to create a new pair of footwear on a wooden shoe last. In my collage, I'm using wooden shoe lasts split in half for enhanced comfort, as they allow some flexibility, and, conceptually, I wanted to give them some sound, since wooden spoons are used as percussive instruments in some parts of the world. The two pieces are connected with woven polyester belts, which are glued and stapled to the wood and covered with a thick layer of leather that adds durability, aesthetics, and comfort. The shoe soles are reclaimed from two different sneakers. The front part is a Converse shoe, and the heel is from a shoe I couldn't identify; both are nailed and glued onto the wooden last. The upper of the shoe consists of a woven Nike Air structure cut into stripes, which is nailed and glued to the shoe's sole. The woven structures are a replicable way to create the same patterns using old shoes, and I was inspired by our instructors, Kristiina Nurk and Simone Springer, and their designs for potential applications. Finally, to top it all off, I have created a tassel, a decorative leather piece for a complete statement. The piece is also inspired by animism, and the narrative points out the beauty of finding spirit or characters in objects, as well as the imperfect, non-factual, dreamy versions of ourselves as human beings. In an ever-evolving world, more numerical conclusions, analyses of consumer behavior, and polished, mass-produced goods seem like inseparable parts of our lives. The piece promotes imperfection, spirituality, and the possibility of being puppeteered. Almost like the mountain in the stories that tells the hero to walk towards the west, or a pair of clogs that has a crush on your course mates’ shoes. At least for the deeply schizophrenic people, who may perhaps be the actual normies, and the people who look at the clouds and see “clouds” and not a single rabbit or a flower, who look at this pair of Clogs and don’t even see Billy. Along with modern medicine may be those who are actually out of their minds.