ISSUES AND CHALLENGED WITH

USE OF 3D PRINTING
NIKE INCORPORATION
TABLE OF CONTENT:
TABLE OF CONTENT:...........................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION:....................................................................................................................................2
BODY:........................................................................................................................................................3
CHALLENGES FACED BY NIKE WITH USE OF 3D PRINTING:..................................................3
ISSUES FACED BY NIKE WITH USE OF 3D PRINTING:................................................................5
CONCLUSION:.........................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES:.........................................................................................................................................7
INTRODUCTION:
When people first discover that something can be made through printing, they struggle to
visualize it. Take the following into consideration: 3D printers build items by stacking material,
which is often plastic or metal, until the model or final product is complete. A laser creates and
fuses a layer of material when a design is supplied into the printer.
3D printers may range in size from a microwave oven to a car. A printer capable of printing a
house by layering cement is currently in development, employing a tractor-trailer-sized printer.
3D printers range in price from less than $1,000 for hobbyist kits to more than $100,000 for
industrial versions. The fashion business has being gradually disrupted by 3D printing. Across
the board, technologies have enabled great innovative possibilities and solutions, from jewelry to
costume design and now footwear. For generations, footwear has been a craft. From handmade
shoes through Lyman Blake's invention of the first shoe sewing machine in 1856. The footwear
manufacturing business has continued to grow and develop (Yelvington et al., 2021).
To early adopters, three-dimensional publication offers a number of advantages, including time
savings; cost reductions from lowered stock levels, zero-waste industrial production, and
efficient generation cycles; personalization; viability of limited production small batches;
decreased ramp-up and lead time; process ability and creative freedom; and use of exotic
innovations and colors. Since the early 1990s, value-added sectors have experienced these
advantages. Similar advantages have recently accrued to parts of the consumer products
business, such as quick fashion.
As with countless other businesses, 3D printing originated as a proof-of-concept technology.
Silvia Fado, CEO and Head Footwear Designer, notes that 3D printing has mostly been used in
the shoe business for "designing to demonstrate volume to clients prepared to invest in mould
fabrication, which is very time and cost efficient." The footwear business is huge (globally,
footwear generated more than $106 billion in revenue in 2018), with a broad range of materials
and product lines available in men's, women's, and children's sizes. Furthermore, shoes may be
classified based on their intended usage, such as athletic shoes, cleats, snowboarding equipment,
or dressier footwear (Yanisky-Ravid and Kwan, 2022).
While the bulk of enterprises in the sector continue to operate using conventional techniques,
sports giants such as Adidas, Nike, Under Armor, and Reebok are engaging in the rapidly
growing field of 3D printing. Nike's team was able to test, iterate, and produce geometries that
were previously unthinkable using normal manufacturing procedures, helping them to accelerate
the pace of invention. Nike is now doing research on labor-intensive upper manufacturing. The
Nike Fly print is the first athletic shoe to use a cloth upper that has been 3D printed. The
combination of Nike Hyper fuse, Fly wire, and Fly knit creates an inconceivable performance
solution. The Fly print uppers manufacturing program commences with the calculation of athlete
data in order to validate the best elemental composition. This information is used to manufacture
the fabric that will be worn, which may be customized for the athlete or purpose if required.
(Kwon, Lee and Kim, 2022).
BODY:

CHALLENGES FACED BY NIKE WITH USE OF 3D PRINTING:

Nike has been a leader in the sports goods industry since 1972, most notably with shoes, which
represented for 60% of Nike's $31 billion in 2017 revenue. Nike's pioneering attitude is evident
in its early efforts in shoe research, which included the introduction of rubber spikes and
performance-enhancing air soles. As a consequence, it's amazing that they were some of the first
apparel companies to use 3D printing, a kind of manufacturing, to hasten the development and
manufacture of their shoe prototypes. In compared to conventional manufacturing, 3D printing
has the opportunity to decrease both the time necessary to iterate through multiple prototype
designs and the associated initial capital investment costs. This provides greater flexibility and
mobility in designing superior products and bringing them to marketplace ahead of its
competition. According to Nike, their prototype production has increased sixteen fold since
2012, when they partnered with HP's 3D printing facility. Adidas' primary rival corroborated this
advantage, noting that prototype time has been reduced from 4-6 weeks to as little as 2-4 days.
Additionally, Morgan Stanley anticipated in 2017 that 3D printing will save Nike 10% on
expenditures, while Forbes predicted that Nike's ecological damage would be reduced by $3.5
million (Yanisky-Ravid and Kwan, 2022).
Nike's leadership team made a few critical choices in order to maximize the short-term worth of
the technology. Nike has always depended on patents to preserve a creative and competitive
advantage in the business. Nike's portfolio of design patents has "nearly doubled in size since
2009 and is currently the third largest in the United States." They were granted a patent in 2015
for a technique of attaching the upper of a shoe to the midsole. Second, Nike teamed up with
HP's 3D printing facility in 2012, acquiring vital exposure to the industry's most powerful 3D
printers. This is especially critical in light of the fast advancement of technology and its
influence on access to high-value commodities. Finally, Nike exemplified its commitment to
development by extending the possibilities of their 3D printing technology beyond shoe
components to include the whole shoe. They developed the world's first 3d printing technology
upper shoe, dubbed the "Fly Knit," in 2016, which evaluates a player's foot information to
determine the shoe's optimal materials and design, and then fabricates the shoe using 3D knitting
technology. This knitting technique has been demonstrated to produce in a shoe that is much
more energetic, breathable, and performing. While Nike has traditionally used 3D printing for
niche discovery and prototype testing, the company must consider the long-term implications of
mass 3D printing industrial production, changes in customer purchase behavior, the start rising
of home 3D printing, and how to stay ahead of the competition as technological advancements
occur.
Despite the disruptive potential of 3D printing for industry, the technology faces significant
obstacles. Although transaction fees have fallen, maintenance expenses and high material prices
continue to be impediments to adoption. Supplier scarcity in 3D printing results in resource
reliance and strengthens material suppliers' negotiating leverage. Consolidating procedures and
standardizing quality across small production batches remains a barrier to large-scale 3D printing
adoption.
Nike has agreed to do large-scale testing of HP's 3D printers, hinting that mass manufacturing is
imminent. This announcement is timely, since Adidas has already committed to mass producing
100,000 pairs of shoes in 2017 via a collaboration with 3D printing startup Carbon. Nike has also
examined the repercussions of a shift in client purchase behavior if 3D printers become prevalent
in households and outlet stores, allowing for the creation of customized shoes. Nike's chief
operating officer said in 2015 that one of the industry's aims was to free consumers from "in-
store products" and enable them to purchase a pointe shoe file for home manufacture adoption
(Kwon, Lee and Kim, 2022).

Nike has agreed to do large-scale testing of HP's 3D printers, hinting that mass manufacturing is
imminent. This announcement is timely, since Adidas has already committed to mass producing
100,000 pairs of shoes in 2017 via a collaboration with 3D printing startup Carbon. Nike has also
examined the repercussions of a shift in client purchase behavior if 3D printers become prevalent
in households and outlet stores, allowing for the creation of customized shoes. Nike's chief
operating officer said in 2015 that one of the industry's aims was to free consumers from "in-
store products" and enable them to purchase a pointe shoe file for home manufacture.

Nike competes in the extremely competitive sports clothing and footwear sector, which is
dominated by a limited number of multinational corporations. The industry's challenges are self-
evident: changing consumer preferences, a continuous quest of invention, and management of a
complex global supply chain. Additive manufacturing has the potential to profoundly alter this
competitive landscape, and industry leaders understand the importance of forecasting such
enormous amounts of material (Strauß and Knaack, 2016).

A typical issue that industrial users of 3D printing face is intellectual property protection.
Intellectual property protection has become a serious concern for a broad variety of businesses
(including fashion) that have embraced 3D printing (de Pablo et al., 2019).

One thing is certain: 3D printing did not introduce counterfeit or pirated items to the market;
rather, its affordability has exacerbated the creation of such things. Indeed, once a consumer has
a CAD file, he or she may modify an item to his or her specifications and 3D print it.
As 3D printers become more accessible for home use, we may see an increase in digital
counterfeiting; clients who hold an illicit or legal copy of a CAD file may easily circumvent
fashion industry counterfeiting restrictions.

Thus far, fashion businesses have shown that it is feasible to wear 3D Printed clothing. However,
due to the high cost of the technology and the time necessary to make a 3D printed object in
comparison to traditional manufacturing processes, these firms have always released a restricted
assortment of their items. That is, after all, what we saw with Nike, Under Armour, and Adidas
(de Pablo et al., 2019).

Along with their current strategy, I believe Nike should probably expand their use of 3D printing
for development and testing to apparel and other high-end hardware (e.g., tennis rackets and golf
clubs) in ways to collect comments from professional athletes and produce performance
improvements more quickly in order to potentially leapfrog contenders in other market segments.
Furthermore, a thorough examination of the implications of mass production and other potential
applications for this technology is needed. While the advantages of 3D printers for prototypes are
obvious, bulk production is still in its infancy. Several more factors to consider include the net
cost effect, the influence on labour placement, size, and professional skills, the general
environmental consequences, and consumer impression of customer satisfaction (Sun and Zhao,
2022).

ISSUES FACED BY NIKE WITH USE OF 3D PRINTING:

Additionally, we discovered that adopters' evaluations of some characteristics, most notably
difficulties, were not substantially different from non-adopters'. The primary impediments to 3D
printing adoption include a shortage of competent labour, a general lack of knowledge about the
technology, the technology's acquisition and maintenance expenses, and its simplicity of use.
Acquisition and maintenance expenditures are seen as a lesser barrier by users of 3D printing
technology than by non-adopters (Strauß and Knaack, 2016).

Nike's margins are now squeezed by all of the operations involved in getting the shoe design
from its headquarters in Oregon to your foot wherever you are in the globe. When technology
catches up, you'll be able to scan your foot and print your shoe just outside your front door. Nike
will eliminate all costs associated with third world labour, shipping, and distribution. The whole
paradigm is altered, and an extraordinary amount of power is transferred to those who own the
intellectual property (assuming there are strict rules in place to prevent Napster-style copying)
and the printers authorized to generate this IP. According to their assessment, 3D Printing will
once again reshape the global workforce/trade dynamic (Moorhouse and Moorhouse, 2017).

To maintain its leadership position in sustainability and digital supply chains, particularly in the
3D printing space, Nike will unavoidably need to expand and demonstrate to customers and
competition its dedication to an innovative supply chain by transitioning from testing to
commercial production. Adidas has already made significant advances in this area, unveiling a
shoe with a 3D printed sole and intending to mass manufacture it in 2018. This will enable
Adidas to respond more quickly to individual preferences – from design and colour to weight -10

While 3D Printing can create items from a range of molecules and metals, the raw materials
available are not comprehensive. This is because not all metals or polymers are sufficiently
accurate to permit 3D printing. Furthermore, the bulk of these printing substances are non-
recyclable, with just a small percentage being food safe (Gwangwava et al., 2022).

At the moment, 3D printers have limited print chambers, limiting the size of components that can
be manufactured. Anything larger than this will need to be printed in separate sections and
assembled after production. This may lead to an increase in expense and schedule for larger
objects, since the printer must make more components before using human labour to assemble
the components (Kwon, Lee and Kim, 2022).

Parts are manufactured layer by layer using 3D printing (also known as Additive
Manufacturing). While these layers attach to one another, they are also susceptible to
delamination under specific loads or orientations. This problem is compounded when things are
made using fused deposition modelling (FDM), and polyjet and multiset elements are brittle as
well. In certain cases, injection molding is better since it results in homogenous components that
do not divide or break (Strauß and Knaack, 2016).

Additionally, this cannot be a one-off initiative inside Nike, but rather a larger corporate
understanding, skill development, and execution. EY recommends a four-step process for
businesses to develop and grow this 3D printing environment.[ CITATION Kan21 \l 1033 ]
Finally, given the potential role of 3D printing in Nike's overall performance and strategic
distinctiveness, it is critical that Nike finds a method to connect its many projects – from
recycling materials to Color dry and Fly knit technologies and 3D printing – into a cohesive
approach. Nike, in particular, and keeping in mind that it is a consumer products firm, must
consider how to engage consumers in the conversation5. If not cautious, 3D printing might result
in increased prices rather than realized efficiencies, leaving consumers unhappy, similar to what
occurred with Nike's self-lacing Nike Hyper Adapt 1.0, which was introduced in late 2016 and
would sell for $720 (Moorhouse and Moorhouse, 2017).

The company's accomplishment is shown by a near-3% absolute decrease in carbon emissions

throughout the whole value chain from the FY11 baseline, although sales increased 26% over the
same time. Production also increased as the business achieved its strategic objective of sourcing
from fewer, higher-performing contract factories, with a 14% drop in the previous two years –
from 910 to 785 facilities.

Several difficulties confront the sector, including the pace at which ecologically preferable
materials become accessible at competitive prices and the market's adoption of new green
technology. Nike is in the midst of another retail revolution, this time not in e-commerce, one in
which everything from clothing and homeware to sports apparel will be designed, personalized,
and manufactured on demand in local warehouses and backrooms of stores in local communities,
rather than in factories in China. Amazon was the first to announce that it now possesses all of
the pieces necessary to become a fully autonomous clothing designer, manufacturer, and shipper,
and now Nike, in the sportswear space, has announced that it has solved the final hurdle in on-
demand manufacturing of sneakers – 3D printing the "uppers," or as you and I know them, the
tops of the shoe (Moorhouse and Moorhouse, 2017).

Nike is hardly the only footwear manufacturer pursuing 3D printing. Adidas recently revealed a
project called Future craft 3D, in which the company showcased a hypothetical model of a 3D-
printed midsole that is customized to the user's foot. The business envisions a future in which
each consumer receives a sole built just for their shoe (Gwangwava et al., 2022).
Despite Nike's and its competitors' advancements, there are still some anticipated roadblocks to
surmount. 3D printers will need to achieve widespread acceptance before they can be used to
make shoes at home. Prices will need to come down, and additional uses for such devices will
need to be developed to promote home usage. Additionally, although Fly knit technology enables

digitalization, the sole must still be affixed individually (Nagel, 2019) . As Nike is a fast moving
manufacturing company so 3D printing is slow as compared to traditional manufacturing
method. This may impact the sales and production of company.

CONCLUSION:
On a smaller scale, at least for the time being, some barriers must be overcome. To start, the
research and development stages remain quite hard at the moment, especially for smaller firms.
At the present, there are also issues with printing speed, which numerous companies are striving
to tackle. However, for the time term, it may be time demanding and, in some situations, with

certain materials, the deliverable may lack the needed precise finish.

The employment of 3D printing in the international footwear industry has disrupted production
processes throughout the supply chain and altered stakeholders’ interests in a once-traditional
sector. With international sports firms pioneering the usage of 3D printing in product
manufacturing, global footwear areas may adopt best practices, democratizing technological
developments and making innovations more accessible to the common customer. As the
international footwear business grows its usage of 3D printing, a local support architecture
(funding, subsidies, and consulting) and new and inventive marketing strategies will arise.

However, it does have a number of favorable aspects. Apart from the more eco-conscious
production process, it is also simpler to create made-to-measure items. This results in a final
product that, when it is delivered to the user, is a more customized item. A shoe that is tailored to
their specific requirements. This may produce good results that fits and looks better. As 3D
printing may easily be adapted for athletic equipment, such as TAILORED FITS' insoles, or for
upgrading local traditions, such as Alex Reed's. The creator is emboldened by technology, and
purchasers seeking a more distinctive and fashionable shoe may expressing themselves more
freely.
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