These adidas Sneakers are Made with Light and Oxygen

Despite looking like a riff on the extremely popular Ultra Boost, these adidas Futurecraft 4D sneakers are wildly new. That’s because they feature the first ever midsole crafted with light and oxygen. What does that mean? Well, the sneaker brand collaborated with Carbon, a Silicon Valley startup, to leverage their “Digital Light Synthesis” technology. While normal 3D printing requires an injection mold, this process uses light to shape liquid before it’s heated into place. For the future, it’s actually pretty exciting, as the technology should allow adidas to craft a shoe tailored to the person who is going to wear it. The bigger athlete with certain size feet will get different shoes than the slender trail runner. For now, however, it just means one slick looking pair of sneakers. An initial release of 300 pairs will go out to family and friends this month, but a larger run will come late in 2017.