Futurf is a turf football footwear concept which envisions a future where additive manufacturing takes center stage in the production of consumer goods, providing greater capabilities for customized and personalized products based on biometric data and specific body dimensions. The concept is designed with Balena Biocirc Flex3D a 3D printing filament made from 50-85% biobased content. The project was executed independently.
Global Footwear Manufacturing Map
As of 2025, according to World Footwear, Asia is the largest exporter of footwear across the globe exporting 88% of the worlds shoes.
World Footwear, 2025
Traditional Construction:
Why 3D Printing?
Traditional shoes can consist of 40+ different materials and can contain a range of 33-4,200 ‘forever chemicals’ (Oxman, 2025). This results in complex supply chains, long bill of materials, and large amounts of energy and water intensive processes.
3D printing disrupts traditional footwear making by offering localized manufacturing, unique on-demand business models, cost savings, shorter time to market/parts, customization and lower environmental impacts.
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3D Printing:
What is the future of turf football?
Sketching and 3D Modeling
Loose hand sketches were imported into gravity sketch to model the 3D form where parametric texturing would be applied. The concept continued developing from the sketches when brought into the virtual reality space.
A Tabi construction was used to provide a natural and barefoot fit. By isolating the big toe (hallux) and allowing it to flex the design allows proper locomotion plus natural balance and support. The large toe supports 40-60% of the body weight when walking and acts as the primary lever for forward propulsion.
With the help of Artificial Intelligence, a CSV heightfield data grid was generated with values from 0-1 from a foot pressure scan image. The data as imputed into grasshopper where the CSV data points informed the 3D form for a custom fit.
From Foot Pressure Data to 3D Form
Scripting and Texturing
Based on the CSV data a script was created in grasshopper to apply custom texture to the outsole and striking texture on the upper.
Imagined with Balena Biocirc Flex3D
