Technology upstart LORE has figured out how to make custom cycling shoes even more custom, by 3D-printing the upcoming LoreOne carbon road shoe to perfectly fit your foot. While we only really have a tease of their “world’s first” 3D printed cycling shoe, there’s plenty of interesting tech to peel back, with the unmatched fit and performance set to open up to consumers in less than two months’ time.
LoreOne – world’s first 3D printed carbon cycling shoe
Ambitiously calling the 3D-printed shoe project “the next major technical leap in cycling“, Lore doesn’t need to exaggerate about the fact that light, stiff & comfortably fitting cycling shoes are really a game-changer for roadies looking to maximize performance. Carbon shoes have set the benchmark for light weight & stiffness for decades. And countless brands have offered various degrees of custom fit over the years – most often via heat molding. But short of having recently-retired pro cyclist Adam Hansen custom mold featherweight carbon shoes to your foot for 3500€, creating a fully customized carbon road shoe has remained out of reach of the masses.
Now, thanks to the ability to 3D-scan an individual’s feet, and then 3D-print a rigid shoe over that model, Lore creates a perfectly customized fit without the need for time-consuming and expensive negative & positive molds for every buyer’s feet.
Custom 3D-printed carbon shoes – Tech details
The new LoreOne shoes are said to take advantage of “multiple patent-pending breakthroughs in design, biomechanics, and manufacturing” to create each custom fit, one-piece monocoque carbon shoe. The result promises unmatched custom fit, a more-direct low-stack connection between foot and pedal, and increases in both pedaling efficiency & power output.
Lore remains tight-lipped on the exact 3D-printing tech at play here, but their promo videos suggest Lore may be using a series of German Kuka industrial robots to create the LoreOne shoe, using 3D-printing technology like we’ve seen with carbon-reinforced plastics.
It appears to be a multi-step process to create the one-piece rigid carbon sole & upper. The resulting shoe appears to have a thin shell, reinforced by a network of overlapping external ribs to give it structure. Then ultimately, a soft sock-like shoe cover slips over top, enclosing the entire shoe for maximum aerodynamics.
It is unclear how any fit, closure, or retention system may be incorporated. And we would assume since they are custom that they should be compatible with any road pedals. Curiously, the promo image shows the complete shoe on an XTR mountain bike SPD pedal!
Lore as a company is new to cycling, but is said to bring together experienced designers & engineers from well-established brands including Apple, Black Diamond, DPS ski, Nike, Puma, and Tesla. They also worked closely with American Olympic track cyclist, 14x US track champ and professional coach & bike fitter Colby Pearce to refine the shoe project.
CEO Stephan Drake calls the Lore One shoe project, “not only the most exciting cycling shoe ever made, but… revolutionary across all footwear categories. The level of customization, performance, materials, environmental sustainability, and manufacturing technology represent[s] a bold leap into the future.”
3D printed carbon LoreOne cycling shoes – Availability
For now, we need to tide ourselves over with the video and these pink & blue teasers. Lore will officially unveil the full details of the custom 3D printed carbon LoreOne cycling shoes in April 2021. That will also be when they open up pre-orders for the first pairs of custom shoes.
Custom shoes are about to go far beyond custom paint jobs!
