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2013 — 2016

Traditional Craft
Ready for Disruption

Inventing the first fully automated 3D-printed custom orthotic pipeline — smartphone photo to finished product, zero human intervention.

SOLS custom 3D-printed orthotic — side profile
The Challenge

A $500 problem with a one-size-fits-all answer

Traditional custom orthotics cost $500 or more, required weeks of waiting, and depended entirely on the specialist in the room. The process was slow, expensive, and inaccessible to the vast majority of people suffering from foot pain. Off-the-shelf insoles left a gap that technology hadn't yet filled.

The question at SOLS: could we automate the entire pipeline — from a smartphone photo to a finished custom product — with zero human intervention? Could we turn a bespoke craft into a scalable system?

Traditional orthotic insoles in various materials — leather, foam, fabric SOLS prototype orthotics in red, white, and black — material testing phase SOLS product ecosystem — orthotic, carrying case, iOS app, and prescription pad
The Approach

Material science meets automated design

Material Selection

  • Selected NASA-grade Nylon 11 for its balance of rigidity and elasticity — the same material used in aerospace components
  • Engineered variable-thickness geometry: rigid through the arch, tapering to 1mm at the toe box
  • Used finite element analysis (FEA) to lock printing parameters before production
  • Designed weight-specific heel shells to distribute load based on patient biomechanics
Biomechanical pressure contour maps — FEA analysis showing load distribution across foot geometry
3D foot mesh wireframe from three angles — the automated design system input model

Automated Design System

  • Built automated 3D CAD generation from scratch — no human hands touching the design file
  • Developed an iOS app for podiatrists: structured photo capture + digital prescription in one workflow
  • Algorithms translate key anatomical measurements (arch height, heel width, metatarsal spread) into a patient-specific 3D model
  • Alpha and beta testing with practicing podiatrists and real patients to validate comfort and clinical outcomes

Key insight: A great physical product is really a data problem. By capturing biomechanical requirements as structured data — not as a craftsman's intuition — we could automate what had always been a manual art. The orthotic was the output; the algorithm was the product.

The Outcome

Scaled to mass manufacturing. Acquired by Aetrex.

SOLS shipped mass-customizable orthotics that improved patient comfort and clinical accessibility. The automated pipeline proved that with the right data structure, even complex biomechanical products could scale beyond specialist craft. SOLS was acquired by Aetrex, one of the leading orthopedic footwear companies in the world.

The Process

From capture to creation — in days, not weeks

Podiatrist using iPad to capture foot photos and enter digital prescription

1. Capture

Podiatrist uses iOS app to photograph the patient's foot and enter a structured digital prescription — no plaster casting, no lab shipping.

3D foot mesh wireframe — automated CAD generation

2. Design

Algorithms process anatomical measurements and prescription data, automatically generating a patient-specific 3D CAD model. Zero human intervention.

Pulling finished orthotic from SLS 3D printer powder bed

3. Make

Nylon 11 SLS 3D printing produces the finished orthotic at manufacturing scale — the same geometry every time, to micrometer precision.

Why It Matters

The playbook for data-driven physical products

The SOLS pipeline established a model that I've applied at every company since: capture human body data as structured input, run it through automated design logic, and produce a custom physical output at scale. Body Labs commercialized this with body shape models. Nike applied it to sizing and fit across a $50B product line.

The insight is transferable: any physical product that currently relies on expert intuition can be systematized if you're willing to build the data layer first.

Building something in this space?

I help teams apply body data and advanced manufacturing to create better physical products — from biomechanical footwear to apparel fit to medical devices.

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