Footwear Designs that Pushed Boundaries in 2016

BY EMILY ENGLE From Core77

This year, 3D printed, sustainable and technology infused footwear designs reigned supreme over the rest, further proving that footwear design is a booming creative industry. The most popular designs from this year incorporate unique materials, manufacturing techniques and technological gimmicks to captivate footwear fans across the globe.

To start things off, we took a look at how shoes were made before 3D printing and sustainable efforts took over the industry. We also checked out techniques to make complicated shapes by hand with clogger’s tools.

The 3D printed footwear scramble between all major footwear companies kicked off earlier this year with the release of Under Armour’s 3D ARCHITECHS—the first 3D printed shoes to actually hit the market. Following the 3D ARCHITECHS, Reebok released a limited run of their liquid 3D printed kicks, the Liquid Speeds. We got to test these guys out in a thorough review, packaging and all. Following Reebok, adidas recently released their take on the trend—their 3D Runners.

Thanks to efforts from multiple companies, sustainable footwear was on everyone’s mind this year. The most popular example is theadidas x Parley ocean shoe, which is made from recycled ocean plastic debris. It gets even better—a version of the sustainable sneakers are set to hit the market in the near future.

On a similar note, as part of the Carbon XPrize competition, NRG developed shoes made mostly from recycled carbon dioxide emissions. And These simple, tied together shoes do more than look nice—they respond to workers’ health issues and reduce waste by eliminating glue from the manufacturing process.

Boundary-blurring silhouettes also came into play earlier this year when Nike released their KD8 sneakers. Are they high-tops? Low-tops? They’re both, and they’re definitely…different.

These funky Japanese wrapping cloth inspired sneakers from Vibram intrigued us from the start, but we found a rarely perfect product review so we didn’t have to get a pair for ourselves.

Rounding up our year in review footwear edition is the release of the sci-fi turned reality classics, the Air Mags. Nike’s self-lacing sneaker concept started over 30 years ago when the Air Mags debuted in Back the the Future 2. This year, an 89 pair special released occurred to benefit Parkinson’s disease. Self-lacing is a sought after gimmick that Nike is making “more affordable”and actually performance related through the release of their HyperAdapt 1.0 sneakers.

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