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Siraya Tech enters the 3D printed footwear market.
Siraya Tech is a well-known provider of 3D print materials, especially specialty resins. However, they also produce lines of filament products for engineering, modelling, and casting.
This week, they announced a new line of products, “Roamr”. It’s a filament brand that is specially designed for 3D printing footwear. Here’s their brand philosophy:
“The name Roamr comes from the word “Roam” — to wander, to walk, to explore. We removed the final ‘e’ not only as a nod to modern, minimalist technology design, but also to emphasize continuous motion and energy. Footwear and wearable products are the tools humans use to explore the world — and Roamr is the core material that powers that journey.”
The new products are foaming filaments, which, if you don’t know, are designed to bubble as they extrude. The polymer then solidifies, capturing the bubbles as foam. This makes this type of material ideal for shock-absorbing parts, especially for footwear.
However, Siraya Tech already produced a couple of foaming filaments, TPU Air and PEBA Air. They explained that the TPU Air doesn’t provide sufficient energy return when compressed for use in footwear, while the PEBA Air is a bit too stiff. The Roamr line, a foamed TPU, is designed to address those issues with a material specifically designed for footwear printing.
They say that Roamr can provide up to 50% more rebound energy when used in footwear as compared to the TPU Air product, and is “softer, more wearable” than the PEBA Air material.
This announcement is quite interesting, coming only a day after our story about the burgeoning 3D printed footwear market. There are multiple services now open that provide 3D printed shoes, and a series of different materials to print your own. Now we can add Siraya Tech’s Roamr products to that list.
