Changing the Footwear Industry One Print at a Time
While Zixiong Wei is still enrolled in his Innovation Design studies at The Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, he managed to generate magnificent waves all over social media and the footwear industry.
With his delicate 3D printed footwear silhouettes he managed to gain a significant following over the last few years.
Born in Sichuan but now based in Beijing, the 22-year mind behind SCRY Lab Zixiong, better known under his Instagram handle @scccccry, takes us on a journey, a journey ranging from rethinking, rebuilding to restructuring an age-old industry. With the intention to bring a change to the current status quo of footwear design as a whole, Wei uses the power of 3D printers to his advantage.
With his extensive work in analog and digital form, the use of AI and a lot of time in 3D modelling generated an output ranging from full-on wearable 3D printed footwear to conceptual footwear design for the digital space that is about to grow in the years to come.
Besides their own projects, Wei and his small team collaborated with various fashion brands to support them in a more sustainable approach in their footwear design. Ranging from Sankuanz who are also based in China to Heliot Emil in Copenhagen, Denmark. Both of them collaborated with SCRY for their AW22 collection.
What really stood out is the wireframe solution Wei and his team created which allows large 3D printed structures to still maintain flexibility while using a resistant material as the base material for printing. This solution is based on a project they call “Digital Embryo”.
“Under the digital embryo framework, a virtual version of a project can be released before it is born in the real world. Design no longer struggles with the costs of mold opening, time waste, and environmental pollution. Excellent design is no longer stuck in the sketch, everything will be possible.”
It’s literally how Wei states himself “We are not predicting the future, we are creating the future.”
