We hear a lot about the use of 3D printing—also known as additive manufacturing—in the automotive and aerospace industries. Far less is known about the technology’s applications in sports, probably because the industry is significantly smaller and not as well funded. When it comes to 3D printing, the sector often follows in the slipstream of other, wealthier innovators, making the best use of their research and advances.
3D printing in sports might not be making news headlines, yet, but behind the scenes, the technology is going for gold.
Benefits of 3D Printing In Sports
There are various benefits associated with 3D printing in sports. Firstly, 3D printing facilitates speedy prototyping, which enables sports equipment manufacturers to achieve fast turnaround times on their latest product lines.
The technology also lends itself to mass customization, which describes the production of unique or customized items, such as one-of-a-kind pieces of clothing or footwear, at the same scale—and with the same ease, efficiency, and cost—as mass-produced products. In sports, mass customization holds enormous value, enhancing performance and comfort for athletes with bespoke products, as well as providing the brands designing them with a competitive advantage in a crowded market.
Finally, 3D printing is an iterative process, with most manufacturers fine-tuning their designs over time for marginal gains. This is something the professional sporting world knows all about, with runners, cyclists, and Formula One (F1) drivers often winning in their respective sports by fractions of a second. If 3D printing serves to inform the tiniest tweak to a cycling helmet, running shoe, or F1 tire, it could mean the difference between a win and a loss.
Custom Sportswear
When 3D printing is used in sports to produce custom clothes and footwear, wearers benefit from enhanced comfort, performance, and style. Some examples include:
In 2014, athletic shoemaker, New Balance, partnered with industrial 3D printing company EOS to customize its running shoes using plastic sintering technology. The resulting 3D-printed spike plates (a component that provides traction on the underside of a runner’s shoe) are perfectly tailored to the foot strike patterns of individual elite athletes, enabling them to move faster on the track.
New Balance also works with Formlabs, a leader in 3D printing systems, to manufacture a range of running shoe soles via its pioneering footbed technology, TripleCell. The TripleCell platform uses a proprietary photopolymer called Rebound Resin, which enables greater responsiveness and boosts performance during athletic activity.
Nike uses 3D printing technology to enhance several ranges of its footwear.
In 2013, the brand’s Vapor Laser Talon football cleat used a groundbreaking 3D-printed plate, and in 2016, its Zoom Superfly Flyknit leveraged 3D prototyping to develop a sprint spike for a running sneaker. Nike’s Express Lane initiative uses 3D printing to bring sneakers to market faster than traditional manufacturing methods and cut its supply chain timeline from months to weeks.
Meanwhile, Nike By You, the sports manufacturer’s customization platform, targets everyday consumers rather than elite athletes. The initiative lets customers design their own sneakers using 3D printing technology, offering curated color palettes and premium material options.
Custom Sports Equipment
Custom 3D-printed sports equipment improves performance and keeps athletes safe. Some examples include:
Sports equipment maker Vicis uses customizable 3D-printed padding inside its Zero2-R Matrix ID Trench football helmets. The sport’s first position-specific helmet is designed to reduce the repetitive, low-velocity helmet impacts often experienced by linesmen and is proven to reduce injury better than any other helmet in the game.
Wilson is a household name, responsible for supplying the official basketballs of the NBA and WNBA. The company turned heads in 2023 when NBA player K.J. Martin unveiled its 3D Airless Prototype Basketball at the NBA Slam Dunk event. The basketball’s black lattice-work design requires no inflation, with developers at Wilson Labs, Chicago spending several years identifying materials that would offer the necessary durability and high energy return.
An upgrade of Wilson’s highly sought-after product was brought to market for the first time in 2024. Named Airless Gen1, the basketball was available in three colors and each ball featured its number among the series inscribed into the lattice design. Thanks to the product’s extremely high price point of $2,500 price, the first release was “extremely limited”.
Metron AE is a UK-based engineering consultancy and design company, which, among other things, manufactures bicycle parts for professional cyclists.
In recent years, the company pivoted its focus to 3D-printing technology and has since amassed several World, Olympic, and Tour de France victories. The company’s cycling components range is now sold under the brand name Mythos, which launched the first commercially available metal 3D-printed bike stems in 2022.
Metron’s product range now includes 3D-printed handlebars, frames, and forks, all designed to deliver optimized aerodynamics and a good strength and stiffness-to-weight ratio, as well as offering custom fits for individual riders.
XO Armor is revolutionizing athlete care with custom-fit, 3D-printed devices. A stand-out product is the company’s 3D-printed sound-deadening earhole covers, which enable football players to hear their coaches in loud environments. Following an initial collaboration with the Houston Texans, the device is now in use by 60 teams across college football and the NFL.
Sporting goods manufacturer Rawlings has joined forces with two external partners to develop 3D-printed gloves for professional baseball players. The REV1X pads feature a unique lattice pattern, which offers extra strength and provides players with longer-lasting thumb and pinky pads.
Accessibility
From personalized prosthetics to aerodynamic wheelchairs, injured and disabled athletes are among the most significant beneficiaries of 3D printing in sports.
Athletics 3D manufactures 3D-printed sports and industrial equipment for biathlon, rifle shooting, and other sports requiring strong ergonomics, such as lacrosse. Working alongside world-class athletes, the company has mastered the art of 3D customization to optimize performance on the field.
In the run-up to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Athletics 3D produced a custom 3D-printed modified rifle hand stop, which enabled an injured French biathlete to continue their Olympic training. Not only did the injured athlete return to shooting within two months, but he also went on to compete in the Olympic games as planned, something that would have been inconceivable without the modified hand stop.
Wheelchair racing athletes require special racing gloves—also known as push gloves—to protect their hands from the shock and friction generated by the sport and improve their overall performance. In recent years, several companies have started manufacturing this product using 3D printing.
In 2016, eight-time Paralympics Gold medalist, Tatyana McFadden, partnered with CRP USA to advance the quality of 3D-printed racing gloves. The resulting gloves, which are used by McFadden today, are stronger and more durable. The athlete noted that the product enables her to avoid cuts and focus on her training for Team USA.
Sustainability
3D printing in sports drives sustainable business practices in several ways. For example, no excess material is used in the 3D printing process, while the technology also reduces product and material waste via accurate and insightful prototyping, mass customization, and the incorporation of recovered and recycled materials. Further, 3D printing is viable at any location, be it a factory floor or customer fulfillment center. This flexibility allows manufacturers to shorten—if not fully eliminate—certain shipping routes and reduce their carbon emissions.
Last year, French sports apparel retailer, Decathlon, partnered with fashion tech company, Unspun, to leverage the latter’s unique 3D weaving machine, Vega.
Decathlon hopes to collaborate with Unspun as an industrial partner, expanding 3D weaving throughout Europe and serving various European brands. Unspun is passionate about reducing fashion waste and envisages a future where nothing becomes trash. “This collaboration enables us to provide apparel products that have been produced in a more sustainable way to mainstream customers in Europe,” said Unspun’s CEO and Co-Founder, Walden Lam. Scaling Vega could see major shifts in the industry, including the scaling down of factories to move them closer to design teams.
Image credit: Woodwork Amsterdam/Wilson Sporting Goods Co.
