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The world of 3D printed footwear is moving beyond experiments. What was once a niche hub of design and prototyping is beginning to show signs of becoming a real market, with brands and 3D printing startups exploring new ways to design and make shoes, a lot of them in partnership. One company at the center of this move is HILOS, a Portland-based startup that has built what it calls the first AI-powered 3D design platform for footwear.
Founded in 2019 by Elias Stahl, HILOS has already worked with names ranging from Steve Madden and Dolce Vita to smaller independent designers. 3DPrint.com talked to Stahl about how the company’s platform sets itself apart, why 3D printing is gaining ground in footwear, and what comes next.
Making the HILOS for Ancuta Sarca.
HILOS stands for Human Innovation Lab Operating System, and it was founded on the idea that footwear design needed its own digital language. In an industry where most tools still rely on traditional computer-aided design (CAD) or prototype-focused workflows, the company set out to build something different: the first 3D design platform made specifically for shoes, with no CAD required.
“Today, powered by machine learning, our core geometry engine breaks down barriers between 2D and 3D, design and manufacturing, so that designers can move directly from sketch to 3D and production,” Stahl explained. “We work with leading brands like Steve Madden, Dolce Vita, KEEN, and Wilson, with others to be announced soon. We also work with independents like Ancuta Sarca, Untitlab, and Unknown Union.”
For Stahl, the user base is wide open. “Everyone who dreams of designing and launching their own shoes, from emerging creators to some of the world’s highest profile designers and brands.”
HILOS’s Unity grid.
At the heart of the platform is a geometry engine that uses machine learning to bridge the gap between 2D sketches and production-ready 3D models. Designers can move directly from a drawing to a print-ready shoe, cutting out layers of complexity that have long separated creativity from manufacturing, explained Stahl.
“The innovation is not just in design, but in how the system interprets design for manufacturing. HILOS combines the latest in computer vision and machine learning to recognize and break design lines into a manufacturing-aware language for 3D geometry generation. This is an AI-native pipeline for 3D geometry, unlike any developed before, sitting at the frontier of 3D generation and capable of producing highly complex and manufacturable 3D geometry.”
At the heart of this system is Forma, HILOS’s own design language for 3D footwear. It looks both ways: toward the shoe itself, down to its smallest details, and toward the factory floor, adapting to different printers and assembly methods. The result is not a one-off experiment, but a design that can actually be made at scale.
Basically, a traditional shoemaker will design shoes on paper or CAD, then rely on factories (often overseas) to build molds and prototypes before anything is actually made. HILOS skips those steps. A sketch can move straight into a 3D printable, manufacturable design, ready for production on demand.
HILOS’s Unity grid.
On the tech side, HILOS doesn’t own its own fleet of 3D printers. Instead, it partners with a network of print providers using HP’s Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) technology and BASF’s TPU materials, often turning what might require five to six parts into a single, complex unit printed in one go. This setup allows for flexible, on-demand production with fewer parts, less labor, and minimal waste.
HILOS’s Unity.
Lifecycle assessments of HILOS’s pilot launches indicate that the approach can cut carbon emissions by nearly half and reduce water use by up to 99% compared to traditional footwear manufacturing. The savings come from using fewer parts, producing closer to the customer, and only making what’s actually ordered.
For example, when Dolce Vita launched its Holis 3D sandal in partnership with HILOS, the shoes were produced on demand in the U.S. and shipped directly to customers. That model avoided the most common mistakes of global footwear supply chains, like overproduction, excess inventory, long-distance shipping, and the waste that comes from unsold stock.
Dolce Vita Holis 3D sandal.
Looking ahead, Stahl sees 3D printing as “opening a third design language for footwear. Right now, there are two design languages and styles for footwear: traditional fashion footwear, often made in Europe or South America, that is designed for high-quality craft labor, and performance footwear from China and East Asia that is designed for the high efficiency and complexity of Chinese manufacturing. Neither of these will go away, but they will be joined by a third design language, one that marks the next generation of American heritage and local craft and that is far broader and more flexible in terms of creative expression.
“That will be the hallmark of 3D printing, creating a design mark that is unique to the creator and not to the technology.”
According to Stahl, the timing is right; well, right now, actually. 3D printing for footwear is expanding, both culturally and in terms of commercial volumes, in an unprecedented way, he believes.
“We are crossing the chasm into a sizable market.”
HILOS 3D printed footwear.
HILOS is also moving quickly with launches and partnerships. The company first debuted its design platform, Interplay
, at Milan Design Week in May 2024. HILOS took the stage in October 2024 at TechCrunch Disrupt to demo it live while announcing a partnership with Steve Madden.
“This April, we launched the largest on-demand footwear launch of its kind with Dolce Vita. In September, that will be joined by another launch with a New York-based luxury brand.”
Later this fall, the brand will also be opening up an invite-only private beta demo for Interplay for interested users.
HILOS’s Unity grid.
Most shoes today are still made in Asia, which produces more than eight out of ten pairs sold worldwide. That system has defined the industry for decades, shaping how shoes are designed, produced, and delivered.
HILOS isn’t trying to replace that system, but instead to add a third path, one that uses digital tools to make only what’s actually ordered. With more brands testing launches and more designers working in 3D, consumer-ready shoes are beginning to move from experiment to reality. HILOS is betting that “the time for this shift has finally arrived.”
HILOS is also one of the anchor companies at Made in Old Town, a new innovation campus in Portland that’s building an ecosystem around footwear and apparel. In Part Two of this series, we’ll hear from Managing Director Matthew Claudel about how the campus is taking shape.
Images courtesy of HILOS
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