The AI That Empathizes with Designers

Ultra Personalisation

Category:

Ultra Personalisation

Collaborative Project

Read:

11 mins

Tag:

Oximeter, Sustainability, Reusable, Med-design

Completion Date:

October, 2023

GOAL

To design ultra personalized shoes using AI, biomechanics, and 3D printing.

.THE PROBLEM

THE PROBLEM

Every person’s feet are different, but most shoes are still designed as if everyone has the same foot. CALIGA explores how custom, AI-driven footwear can solve both comfort and sustainability problems at the same time.

The Diversity

Feet vary a lot in shape, arch height, and proportions, which strongly affects how they move and bear load. Standard shoe shapes ignore this diversity, which helps explain why 62% of people in the study reported discomfort with regular off-the-shelf shoes.

Sustainability issues

On the industry side, most shoes are made in bulk based on demand forecasts, not actual orders. Around 10% of shoes—about 2.4 billion pairs a year—are never worn, generating huge storage costs, unnecessary CO₂ emissions, and water waste for products that go straight to discount bins or destruction.

Need for Personalization

Research Findings

.Solution

THE CALIGA APPROACH

Precision Foot Mapping

CALIGA uses 3D foot scanning using smartphones to create a detailed digital model of each foot—shape, size, arch profile, and contours—replacing rough, manual measurements. This is achieved through Avatar 3D Feet

Biomechanical Assessment

Gait analysis then looks at how the person actually moves: pronation pattern, foot strike (heel, midfoot, forefoot), pressure distribution, and how the arch and joints behave under load.

Computational Design

Computational algorithms combine this geometry and motion data to shape the shoe: where to add support, where to relieve pressure, and how to align structure with the user’s color, pattern, and style preferences.

Sustainable Production

Each pair is 3D printed on demand in recyclable TPU, making the shoe lightweight, fully recyclable, and produced only when someone actually orders it—no overstock, no dead inventory