Save the dates for Footwearise 2025!

EVENT: DECEMBER 4 & 5
COURSES & EXCURSIONS: DECEMBER 8-12

Thank you all for making Footwearise 2024 a fantastic experience with a fully sold out conference and excursions and amazing results from our two Masterclasses! For this second edition we again had a very high-level audience from the footwear industry, the orthopedic industry, as well as the tech industry - such as builders of software, AI, automation and machines - coming from every corner of the world!

We sent out an evaluation form to all our participants and 100% of respondents said they will certainly return in 2025, commenting on the great insights, leads and contacts they got from the event.

In 2025 we will move to a larger location, since we have reached the limits of our current venue. We are already open for registration of new exhibitors, just contact us for more information. We will work with a first come, first served system, giving early participants the best spots in the new venue. 

Do you want to be the first to receive information about developments for Footwearise 2025? Then subscribe to our newsletter through the form below!
Thank you!

Impression of Footwearise 2024 

Images by Olga Segura

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Interview Peter Erren

Extending the lifespan of footwear is a key subject for Footwearology, so we dedicated one section of the Footwearise 2024 conference to this. Peter Erren, owner of Erren Recondition was not able to join in person, so we recorded an interview with him at our lab in Barcelona shortly before the event. We addressed so many interesting topics that we would like to share it in it´s entirety here. 
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EXHIBITOR PROFILE

Suppliers of:

  • Digital Design and CAD/CAM software
  • AI, AR and VR applications
  • Computational design services
  • Biomechanics and foot scanning solutions
  • Software and platforms for on-demand retail


  • Machines for digital manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing, digital printing, knitting, molding, welding and after-processing


  • Materials for all these types of manufacturing
  • Biofabricated materials


Manufacturers with automated, local manufacturing facilities

Providers of take-back, repair, resale and recycling systems

Research and training institutes for the footwear industry

VISITOR PROFILE

Footwearise has successfully captivated an high´-level international audience of influential decision-makers and early adopters of cutting-edge digital technologies, representing both established multinational corporations and innovative startups.

The first edition of Footprint 3D attracted brands from all segments, such as Nike, Puma, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Dr. Martens, Decathlon, Alohas, Reef, Ecco and many more.

CEOs and founders of footwear brands and factories, including the orthopedic industry

Directors of design and innovation departments of footwear brands

CSR managers and material buyers

Retailers (physical and ecommerce) with an interest in ondemand systems and/or take back systems

Technology investors

This was the conference schedule of 2024

10:30 - 11:15 kickoff keynote - FORECAST 2040

Nicoline van Enter - Founder at Footwearology

Nicoline van Enter shifted from predicting innovation to creating it. Now, for the first time in 15 years, she will return to her former profession as a forecaster to immerse the audience in her vision of the future, fusing the latest developments with various forms of AI, visualizing the footwear industry that we could all create together for 2040.

11:15 - 12:00 interview and live demo

Cornelius Schmitt - CEO at Zellerfeld

We speak with Cornelius about his experiences pioneering not only a new way of producing footwear, but also a new way of selling it directly from factory to consumer using an innovative system of time slots. And... we will demonstrate a new app for designing shoes that can be printed with FDM, creating a shoe together with the audience, which will then be printed at Zellerfeld´s facility overnight!
12:00 - 12:45 FUTURE SOFTWARE workflows

  • Carlos Pérez Albà - Business 3Development at McNeel Europe
  • Daniel Bachmann - Chief Innovation Officer at Spherene
  • Ivan Volchenskov - CEO at Newarc

In this section we speak about future design workflows from a software perspective. How will we combine AI with other 3D applications and how will that affect both our 2D and 3D workflows? Which other developments in software will prove to be key?
12:45 - 13:45 lunch break
13:45 - 14:30 bring it back barcelona

  • Lorenzo van Galen - Co-founder at WEAR
  • Pim Roggeveen - Co-founder at WEAR
  • Theo Nooteboom - Managing Director Erren Reconditioning
  • Sophie van Kol - Innovation Manager Footwear at Fashion for Good

The new EPR legislation forces companies in the EU to take responsibility for the waste management of their products even after the consumer has discarded them. In this special Barcelona edition of WEAR´s Bring it Back events - which are held each month in Rotterdam - we discuss how both worn shoes and excess stock can be kept in the market and maintain their value, which is not only much more sustainable, but also more profitable.
14:30 - 15:30 the tool twisters

  • Janne Kyttanen - Founder and CPO at What the Future
  • Ferran Navarro - CEO at Siocast
  • Rene Medel - Senior Digital Creation Engineer at Framas
  • Hélder Maias - Sales Director at ForEver® | Procalçado

Tooling has historically been one of the most expensive parts of footwear, but now we see a wave of innovation in this field, from using compostable compounds to completely new molding systems that enable local-for-local manufacturing setups. In this panel we do not only talk about these innovations as such, but also focus on how to get companies to embrace disruptive systems and reshore production.


15:30 - 16:30 resizing the future

  • Ales Jurca - VP Footwear Research at Volumental
  • Charles Held - CEO at Shoefitr.io
  • Fabrizio de Lucia - Founder at Future Footwear Department
    Jared Fiorivich - Founder at Future Footwear Department
    Jesse Gabriel - Founder at Future Footwear Department

This will be a very thought provoking deep dive on the future of shoe sizes. How can we combine information from big data sets of footscans like Volumental has, with information from automated shoe scanning like Shoefitr does, so we can better compare people´s actual size with their personal fit preference? And how can we then apply that information in innovative open source algorithmic last design and grading systems like Future Footwear Department´s New World Grade? How will technologies like printing and knitting reshape our thinking about sizes?
17:30 - 19:00 NETWORKING EVENT
only accessible with startup or vip ticket

Conference program for the second day in 2024

10:30 - 11:00 OPENING KEYNOTE - PRINTING 360

  • Tim Downing - Footwear veteran & 3D printing expert

Tim is one of the few people the has in-depth knowledge of both the footwear industry and the 3D printing industry, having worked for many years at New Balance and Stratasys. He came to give a lecture on 3D printing for one of our 3D printing courses and we felt it was so informative that we asked him to repeat it at Footwearise. He will address the full range of printing technologies and explain their pros and cons from a footwear perspective.
11:00 - 11:30 KEYNOTE - HILOS ON-DEMAND MANUFACTURING MODEL

  • James Carnes - Head of Wearables at Hilos

James is the former VP of Global Brand Strategy and Sustainability for Adidas and is now a venture partner in promising footwear startups. He will talk about the on-demand and AI assisted design and manufacturing system that Hilos launched recently and how they are implementing this in a groundbreaking collaboration with Steve Madden. 



11:30 - 12:30 PRINTING FOR PURPOSE

  • Andrea Barchi - department lead 3D Printing at Prototek
  • Elia Schiavi - Co-founder at PUNTOZERO
  • Don Albert - Co-Founder Something Added
  • Nikolay Yudin - Co-founder NeoFoam

In this segment we discuss 3D printing with four very different companies, but they all have in common that they are using advanced, automated 3D design technologies and various kinds of printing to create functionality and performance that can only be achieved through additive manufacturing. 
12:30 - 13:15 future farmers

  • Stefan Weyrich - Sales Director EMEA at Ultimaker
  • Kuba Graczyk - CEO at Koobz
  • Alexander Zar - CEO at Lalaland

In this segment we talk about the challenges and opportunities of setting up 3D print farms for FDM with three companies that are involved in this in different ways: from building machines and software, to scaling up full FDM print farms by tweaking existing machines, to combining 3D pellet printing with traditional footwear manufacturing.
13:15 - 14:15 lunch break
14:15 - 15:00 looping back manufacturing

  • Garrett Gerson - CEO at Variant3D
  • Patrick Silva Szatkowski - Director of Marketing at Santoni Spa
  • Pedro Felix - General Manager at Cosmiknit

With these three companies we talk about two subjects that go hand in hand for them: how to bring back manufacturing to the USA and Europe and how to push the boundaries of knitting technology, from making it more accessible through innovative 3D design software for knitting, to creating shoe constructions that can be manufactured locally using flat knitting and circular knitting.
15:00 - 15:45 the automaters

  • Florian Pfeffer - Partner at Ito Ito
  • Maximilian Bock - COO and Co-founder at Eekual Bionic
  • Daniel Hambleton - CTO at Metafold 3D

In this section we look at how to automate manufacturing workflows from various angles, combining all the different technologies we have discussed throughout the conference. Ito Ito and Desma have developed an automated system that creates a knitted and molded shoe in a minimum amount of time, while Metafold specializes in automating workflows for additive manufacturing using data.
15:45 - 16:45 THE NEW LEAGUE

  • Rasoul Sarvehoveyda + Dani Mayolas - Computational designers at Footwearology
  • Shelly Levitte - Designer/consultant/researcher
  • Jesse Gabriel - Independent designer
  • Yael Joyce Vantu - CPO at Balena
  • Helen Wiehr - Founder and CBO at Hezo Sports

We are ending the conference with a very inspiring session that features several young designers that each have a passion for new design and manufacturing technologies.  They are also previous participants in courses or other Footwearology events. They will take us through their process, opening up our eyes to entirely new workflows, thought concepts, materials and manufacturing methods.
this closes the conference
and starts the side program of footwearise
your are welcome for DRINKS AT FOOTWEAROLOGY LAB

from 20:00 - 22:00
Carrer d´espronceda 103, barcelona

Partners in Footwearise 2024

Footwearology is the only academy for footwear professionals. We enable you to gain the knowledge that will get you, and the companies you work for, ready to create and embrace a better future. All our courses take place online and/or in our LAB in Barcelona, Spain.

Besides teaching, we do research and consulting, focusing on redesigning the entire footwear supply chain by directly connecting technology suppliers, creatives and social media platforms.

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