Virginia healthy women’s shoe company launches a unique 3D printed sole that lets you make your own custom shoes
Regional innovator’s expansion initiatives rooted in industry-first, science-backed, sustainable design
Charlottesville, VA, October 19, 2021 — OESH Shoes announces the launch of their newest and most innovative product yet, OESH Create, a pair of 3D printed soles that puts shoe making into the hands of the customer. Special 3D printed reinforced attachment tunnels around the edge of the sole allow one to easily stitch any type of fabric into the sole, taking shoe customization to a whole new level.
Previously awarded grant funding by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Charlottesville company founded in 2011 received a matching funding award from the Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund (CRCF), whose mission serves and supports innovation and economic growth in Virginia by advancing solutions to important state, national, and international problems through technology research, development and commercialization.
Founded by Dr. Casey Kerrigan, a Harvard M.D. and the first tenured professor and chair of the University of Virginia Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, OESH Shoes used the funds to develop a 3D printing process that makes a healthy sole based on Dr. Kerrigan’s peer-reviewed, NIH funded research.
Not only are the soles healthy for the wearer, they are healthy for the planet, made with zero waste and zero water from a 100% recyclable material.
And now with OESH Create, the customer can take sustainability even further, recycling a worn out pair of jeans, for example, to make their own pair (or two or three pairs) of shoes. The 3D printed attachment tunnels, the first in the history of shoe-making, bypass all the unhealthy toxic, wasteful, and unsustainable parts of traditional shoe manufacturing. They also allow that the shoe can be disassembled and recycled – something that is just not possible with typical shoes that are made up of different materials all stuck together with toxic glues and chemicals.
Besides the attachment tunnels, the OESH Create Soles contain OESH’s signature honeycomb spring system that reduce impact on the joints while building core foot strength promoting long-term, total body health and wellness. To get the momentum going, OESH has included on their OESH Create web page four basic sewing patterns as well as a forum for makers to share ideas. There’s also an OESH Create forum on Facebook.
Dr. Kerrigan was the first to discover a link between osteoarthritis and high-heels back in 1998 and left her tenured professor and chair position at the University of Virginia in 2009 to re-design women’s footwear. The design and springy OESH Create sole couldn’t have been made without the specialized 3D printing process supported by the CRCF and the National Science Foundation.
For more information about OESH Create, visit the website at https://oeshshoes.com/create/
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ABOUT OESH SHOES
Founded by D. Casey Kerrigan, MD, whose published medical research first illuminated many of the ill-effects of current footwear, OESH Shoes was born to change the footwear paradigm to healthy design. Each pair of OESH shoes are designed from the inside out, to minimize the stress and strain that typical footwear inflicts on a woman’s muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints, with the realized goal of attractive footwear that provide long-term health and total body wellness. For more information about OESH, visit their website at www.OESHshoes.com
