If you thought the whole design-it-yourself schtick of Nike's customizable kicks feature, Nike iD, was cool, imagine being able to literally create your own pair by 3-D printing 'em at home. Don't get too excited: This next frontier of DIY sneakers is purely theoretical at this point, but Nike's COO, Eric Sprunk, says it won't be too long until that sneaker-freak fantasy becomes reality. At a recent summit for tech site GeekWire, Sprunk spoke about how Nike's popular Flyknit series has evolved over time, and what might be coming next, according to Quartz.
And the good news is, you wouldn't need to shell out for a pricy 3-D printer (many consumer models will run you $1K to $2K) in order to truly "make" your own Nikes. Should this tech-y advancement actually come to life, you'd be able to have the shoes printed at a Nike store.
“Do I envision a future where [Nike] might still own the file, from an IP perspective — because it’s a Nike product; you can’t have just anybody make a Nike product — and you can manufacture that either in your home or we will do it for you at our store? Oh yeah, that’s not that far away," Sprunk said at the summit, according to Quartz.
You can already 3-D print shoes (they're not Nikes, though), headphones, hats, re-created family jewels, and sunglasses — and those are just the fashion-centric ways the technology can be harnessed. Bringing that kind of power to your running gear? Well that's one way to kickstart your workout.
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