Footwear Production Is Broken. So Are Our Feet. Can 3D Print Fix Both?

InnovationSustainabilityFootwear Production Is Broken. So Are Our Feet. Can 3D Print Fix Both?ByBrooke Roberts-Islam,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Brooke Roberts-Islam is a London-based writer covering sustainability.Follow AuthorMay 18, 2026, 10:00pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.Carbon DLS printing of Vivobarefoot Tabi Gen 02Hunter GriffithAsher Clark, of the famous Clarks shoe dynasty, is a footwear designer who is pledging allegiance to the health of people and the planet. Today’s shoes, he says, undermine thousands of years of pedal evolution, encasing our feet in cushioning they never needed, progressively weakening them and restricting our kinetic abilities.​Adding further (planetary) injury, footwear manufacturing follows ‘subtractive’ material-cutting methods with inherent waste levels of around 20-45 percent, and the industry operates on a forecast-led mass-production model that over-orders and undersells, according to Clark. Mass shoe manufacturing produces around 24 billion pairs each year; an estimated similar number ends up in landfill.Leaving behind traditional footwear methods, Clark co-founded Vivobarefoot with his cousin Galahad Clark in 2010. The brand produces minimal silhouettes without cushioning, aiming to support foot function as nature intended. Of his rejection of cobbler traditions, Clark says: “As a shoe designer/maker, you realize when you are making shoes that have no regard for feet, you can either get after this [problem], or not, and we decided to get after it. The shoe industry is trashing your feet and the planet, and that’s a truth I get out of bed for in the morning”.Clark reports that a significant portion of barefoot growth they have seen is coming from the elite sports movement. “Big athletes, like Mack Hollins, are wearing our product. Strong healthy capable feet are the founda...