adidas Teases Their First 3D-Printed Basketball Sneaker

adidas’ 3D-printed sneaker technology has come a long way since their early Futurecraft unveiling in 2015. Ten-plus years later, the Three Stripes have now teased their first performance model for the basketball court, an unnamed model unveiled for the first time this week. Sneakers and basketball go hand-in-hand, ever since the Converse Chuck Taylor crossed […] The post adidas Teases Their First 3D-Printed Basketball Sneaker appeared first on JustFreshKicks.

adidas’ 3D-printed sneaker technology has come a long way since their early Futurecraft unveiling in 2015. Ten-plus years later, the Three Stripes have now teased their first performance model for the basketball court, an unnamed model unveiled for the first time this week.

Sneakers and basketball go hand-in-hand, ever since the Converse Chuck Taylor crossed over from the court to the streets as a lifestyle icon. The relationship strengthened tenfold in 1985 with Michael Jordan’s debut Air Jordan 1 from Nike, and the two have become further enmeshed in the four decades since then. Performance footwear technology has also evolved greatly in the time, delivering lighter and more responsive sneakers each year. This week, adidas has taken another big step into the future with the unveiling of their first 3D-printed basketball shoe, a yet-to-be-named silhouette that features a fully printed upper.

adidas made history last year with another 3D printed sneaker, the Climacool, marking their first fully printed footwear design available to the public. adidas’ approach to printed shoes are somewhat different from other brands, using a resin material and a style of printing pioneered by Carbon3D in California, which uses Digital Light Synthesis to rapidly harden the resin into the desired shape. Now, that technology is finally making it’s way onto the basketball court for the first time ever.

With March Madness in full swing, adidas took the opportunity to debut their new basketball model. Kansas University’s Darryn Peterson debuted the model on court last night, showing off a sleek, mid-cut silhouette that shares some of its DNA with the Harden Volume 10. The unnamed silhouette features a soft textile inner bootie to secure the athlete’s foot in place, while the outer shell is made entirely from their printed resin. The look is somewhere between Foamposite and Harden, and uses the same sweeping structural lines we saw on the new Climacool slip-ons. This lattice design allows the shoe to flex and twist in ways traditional materials don’t allow, while using higher density zones to maintain a rigid and stable shape that players can make sharp cuts in. For this model, those dense zones are the toes, heels, and midsole areas, leaving only the sidewalls made in the signature lattice build. The model uses the stripe design to create its traction outsole design, while the Three Stripes extend from under the heel upward toward the collar of the silhouette.

adidas has not made any announcements regarding the debut of their first court-ready 3D printed basketball shoe, even it’s name is currently unknown. The sleek new model, which shares some DNA with the current James Harden signature, will likely not release to the public until later this year, possibly lining up with the start of the next NBA season in the Fall. Given the pricing of their printed sneaker silhouettes, we expect this new model to be a higher tier Three Stripes release.

Check out the official images below, and stay tuned to JustFreshKicks on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for more of the latest sneaker news, release dates, and restock alerts.